Day 2: Istanbul

On our second day in Turkey we stayed in Istanbul. We started out on a walking tour and began our day at the Süleymaniye Mosque. It's not as famous as the Blue Mosque, but it still fantastically large and way less ridden with tourists. When we entered we took off our shoes and us ladies covered our heads with scarfs. But as you can see its a gigantic mosque which surprisingly only took eight years to build, which three of those years was just waiting for the foundation to settle so really only five years!



Becca and I in one of the large doorways
in the mosque's courtyards.

 

One of the domes from inside

The Süleymaniye Mosque

Our tour guide told us that they make the mosques comfortable and more homelike, because that way people would feel welcome and more willing to pray, so the carpets-- so soft and comfortable!

The low hanging chandeliers help give the mosque a
more homey feel. It was also a practicality feature when
in ancient times they used oil lamps

Next we went to the Grand Bazaar, which has over 4000 stores. It was huge! And I was completely overwhelmed so I didn't buy anything, but I had a grandtime just looking at the scarfs and jewelry- absolutely beautiful! Here's me and my roommate Whit hanging out in front of a scarf shop.

We then went on a boat ride on the Bosphorus Strait.

Here we are going along the straight. Whitney and Jay are behind,
and then in the front from right to left is me Becca and Nathan.

After lunch we then headed to the Roman Cistern which is just an ancient roman water storage area. All the columns are  actually recycled from more ancient roman buildings so some pillars are consistent but most were not and so it was fun to see all the different shapes of the pillars be all mismatched 'cause no one is supposed to see it anyway!

This one's for you dad! This is me with a Medusa head that
is used to make one of the pillars the right height to actually be useful.

Roman Cistern romantically lit.

And that is why my life is an adventure!!!