Turkey Day 16

We decided we should go see what was written up as one of the most important mosques in Istanbul, Suleymaniye Mosque. After making a few wrong turns we came on an entrance but it didn't seem like many people were here. We entered into a small transcept and we asked the guy how we could get to the main hall and he proceeded to tell us that it was closed for a year for renovations. We weren't really sure that could be true so we walked around looking for the main entrance. We thought we had come in the back. We ended up coming to a place that we thought was the main entrance, we walked in and realized when the same guy came out and asked us to donate money again that we had just walked completly around and had come to the same place.

From there we walked to the Spice Market.

I really think this is a much better place for shoppingthan the Grand Bazaar. More compact, not as crowded and better prices. We even found a few stores that had posted prices, 2 of these had people that had lived in Japan and the owner of one was married to a Japanese lady. I was surprised at how much Shin bought, I'm sure part of which was the fact that he could speak Japanese, and he even paid at the 2 stores in yen.

Back to the store aching from walking, rested a little then off to the little restaurant that served Ayvalik tost. Basically it has meat, cheese, french fries, and a kind of potato sald, tomato, on a hot pressed grilled sandwich. Very good.

Took the tram and headed to Taksim next. Today as we walked down the street we got to go into 2 of the large old churches that remain in this area. The first one that you can see from the square was I believe a Greek Orthodox church. Didn't think we were going to be able to get in, but 3 other tourists also happened along and the gatekeeper came and eventually let us in. It was really beautiful. The next one was St. Marys Church. It was wide openwith signs that said this is a place of prayer. It was good that we came back, on Sunday the doors were closed and we were told we could not go in. The main street through this are was much busier than it had been on Sunday which I thought was a little unusual. Caught the second cable car thing down the hill, walked across the bridge and then back to the hotel on our way back we stopped into a Turkish Delights shop that had been around since 1777. I bought another box of goodies. Back to the hotel and rested till about 7 and then out for dinner. Shin seemed to be tired of the food he said he wanted to eat Curry Rice and I said I don't think that is going to happen. Then he said pasta sounds good, so off we went in search of pasta. So we found 2 places with pasta and one with fish, so we opted for the one with both pasta and fish. They asked us if we wanted to go on the roof terrace, which we did, but which was maybe a mistake. Tll the prices were about 10TL more than the smaae menu they had shown us downstairs. The one good point was that the view of the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia was spectacular, and the night that I had been looking for of Aya Sofia. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but I borrowed Shin's and got one good shot.

Bought some tea on the way back and picked up one of the candle lamps. This is our last night. It has been a good trip.