Black Friday

so today was our efficient day of going to all the tourists' attractions in istanbul. we started out the day going to the local cafe - cafe nero, which is like the local version of starbucks. have yet to try out turkish coffee so we'll need to do that sometime in the next two days. anyways after that, we spoke with the concierge and he recommended that we use the tram and go to the aya sofia, which is THE place to see. but then we stepped out into the sunlight and i was wondering if we were really going to walk to the tram station and waste precious non-rainy daylight. fortunately, viv seems to be able to read my mind at times and asked if we should take a cab, to which i readily agreed. because seriously, commuting on local transportation is very overrated (having ridden njtransit and nyc subway, i feel that i do have the right to say this). and luckily after driving by the tram station, i'm glad we didn't walk because it's a bit hilly and the walk would've been at least 20 minutes.
so we took the cab and got to aya sofia, which looked a bit like a run down building with random parts added. seriously the outside is very unimpressive. but once you step inside, it takes your breath away. having once been a cathedral, then mosque and now museum, it's just amazing. the juxtaposition of virgin mary next to mihrab (points to mecca) was kind of surreal. anyways there were mosaics and large circular koran symbols, to be viewed from viv's many pics. unfortunately, they were renovating the large dome in the center, which is completely unsupported and structurally impressive, so we were unable to get any pics without the scaffolding. also we were unable to determine whether ramps to the second floor were implemented after staircases were built or if it was originally like that (cause then they were handicap friendly a lot earlier than any other country).
next we tried to go to the blue mosque, which is right across the street from the aya sofia. but we ended up waiting for a long time for prayer (foreigners and visitors are not allowed during this time, which happens 5x daily) and then giving up (found out later that friday is a holy day, which is why prayer went longer than scheduled) and going to the basilica cistern. this was basically, as viv put it, a bunch of underground columns, which someone had the foresight to put lights underneath, in water to which they charge admission for. regardless, we took some cool photos and headed back to the blue mosque. the thing that struck me the most about the mosque was how the koran was written into the architecture, and looks like part of the art. it was quite impressive as well but not as majestic as the aya sofia, which was my preferred site. but still definitely worth going to see just because it's still in use and just amazing in terms of attention to detail.
so finally we headed off to the grand bazaar and spice bazaar. we even passed by a mcdonalds but decided to pass because it didn't look that appealing. so the turkish men selling rugs, lamps, spices, etc. were a bit aggressive and spoke to us in multiple languages. i don't think people here know what to make of us, especially since asian people are scarce as it is. seriously, i think people tried speaking japanese, russian, chinese, korean, french, english among the languages i could understand. well we didn't buy anything for fear of being mobbed but walked back across the galata bridge and saw the fishermen who apparently stand there all day. viv is unsure as to how they make their money from the few fish that they catch.
after we arrived back at the hotel, we headed back to our bakery for more sweets and ordered in. tomorrow we're heading out for dinner. but i think we were quite impressive hitting all the major spots today. tomorrow's schedule includes a palace and haraam so i'm off to bed-

regina