This really all happened in one day!?

For as great as our first day was, our second was a bit less wonderful. I guess I shouldn't complain too much as most of the morning/early afternoon we saw and did a lot. It was the latter half that was less than ideal...

Yesterday we arose early (maybe getting a total of 6 hours of sleep) and went to our first breakfast at Hotel Uyan. It was interesting... breads, sweets, coffee, Turkish tea, and then hard cheeses, weird meats, olives and cucumbers. These things are standard and I'm not used to eating them for breakfast though Steve seems to be enjoying the olives!

Steve's bag arrived but mine still hadn't and they thought it would be 9pm or 10pm before it would... (not great) Our adventures that day then included finding underwear, socks and a t-shirt for me. (We had success!)

Our first adventure was getting Turkish Liras out of the ATM and going to Aya Sofya, a museum, formerly a church/museum. It was HUGE. We split a tour guide with another older couple from Canada. Steve was nervous about me saying we were from Canada because he realized they were too and then we had to try and fake that we knew more about it and make up more stuff than we anticipated. Whatever. It was kind of fun! They were from Toronto and we were from Alberta. Yeah, I know it's not a city.

The tour guide was good and we learned a lot about the history of the place and how it had bits from Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Pagan traditions. At different points in history these traditions were literally plastered over to be discovered centuries down the road.

After that we had time to hike over to the Grand Bazaar. If you know Steve and me, you know we're not that in to shopping or crowds or people we don't know. That said, we experienced it and all the shops packed into a small area. They actually had store fronts but it was so enclosed and packed in, it felt like a cave. We fought crowds even though it was a Wednesday afternoon. I'd hate to be there on a weekend or holiday! We made a deal with a guy on some beautiful scarves though in hindsight after talking him down, he still made off with a great sale. We found my necessary garments so I didn't have to wear my same outfit for the second half of day 3. Yeah, the pictures are going to look like my first day was a LONG one.

We then were tired and ready for some food but not ready to eat Turkish and went to an Indian restaurant, Dubb, to play it safe. It was decent and we were at least full.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped and toured the Cistern Basilica which is an ENORMOUS underground pool that served as an aquaduct waaay back in the day and only discovered more recently. Can you imagine being the person who discovered this 350+ pillar filled cavern (complete with two Medusa heads)? Spooky. (They did play spooky music and underlight the pillars for added affect. :))

At that point we finished a whole lot more in the first part of the day than we anticipated and went back to the hotel. I fell asleep and took too long of a nap which only made me more groggy. I don't know why I get so tired around 2pm here because that's our normal 9am when I should be wide awake!

I then doned my new attire (complete with a scarf to cover my head and shoulders in the mosque) and we walked over to the impressive Blue Mosque that was out our window the first day. (I also need to comment on our new room. IT IS TINY. There is a bathroom, bed and night stand and that's it. There's enough room for one person to turn around. We are very lucky we were given that HUGE suite the first night for the same price. They don't compare at all!

The Blue Mosque was big but not as big as it appears from the outside. I guess there are many other add-ons that are not a part of the main room. We took our shoes off and I covered my head. They weren't in one of the official 5 prayers of the day (dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, dusk and evening) or we wouldn't have been able to go in. It was still interesting to see a few people worship. The women always have places to be, stand or worship in a back sectioned-off area. I find this a little annoying/degrading but I won't go there right now. It's a different culture and faith, definitely not reflecting my ideals.

From there we wandered through more open markets with less people and enjoyed window shopping. The merchants didn't bother us too much. I think they could see in our eyes that we really didn't want to be approached. It gets old FAST.

We did have our first experience Turkish rug shopping. We just wanted to get an idea how expensive the rugs really are (and they are!) but this young man took us into a room, gave us Turkish tea ("It's the culture" as he said) and showed us lots of BEAUTIFUL rugs. Some are wool on cotton, wool on wool, silk on wool and silk on silk (holy money on those!). We learned a lot about how to identify the different levels and qualities of what makes a rug finer than the next. It was cool to learn about! We left and are debating if we will go back and barter.

On another meander back to the hotel/in search of dinner we were stopped by the guy outside the restaurant Murama (something like that). He promised us vegetarian though it didn't say they had it on the menu. Steve seemed into it because of the view (and I agree it was good- though skeptical about this "amazing vegetarian plate"). I also was hoping to find traditional Turkish folk music while we ate. (We did find it in the end for Thursday night (tonight!)) The waiter didn't seem to have much to offer in the way of anything but eggplant and I'm back to zero with that vegetable after two nights ago. Steve was a good sport and we ordered 4 small plates to share (all vegetarian). Without going into detail of what they were, they weren't that good. I guess I'm too darn picky or just not into traditional Turkish food.

The bill came and there was a 20 TL plate. I asked the waiter what that was as all our plates were small. He said it was the special one. (The one I REALLY didn't like.) I said ok and we paid our bill. Not feeling good about this one on the way out I looked at a menu and told the street guy that it wasn't that great. I asked him why a plate listed at 7 TL would have cost us 20 TL!? He took me back inside and soon we had the owner and about 4 waitstaff surrounding us. Our waiter finally came by and I explained exactly what we ate and why that item wasn't what we ate. He seemed nervous but I was PISSED that he had indeed ripped us off. They ended up refunding us some money but I still don't think it was enough. I mostly wanted to let them know that sort of CRAP was not ok. From here on out, I've got my game face on and I will trust no one. I'm tall and white but will put up a good fight. :)

Steve and I then looked into having some help from a travel guide. I don't think the guy was ready for my attitude from the beginning but I'm REALLY sick of people pushing things on us and telling us it's a good deal. I will decide that myself when it actually IS a good deal. Jury is still out on whether we'll have this guy help us or find our own way to our next city.

Lastly before crashing around 1am (not going to sleep at 10pm probably helped us sleep through the night) we went up to a rooftop bar in the Seven Hills Hotel. It is right next door and reaches so high into the sky. The view was spectacular but of course we didn't bring a camera. Steve tried Raki (traditional drink) and it was a lot like intense black licorice. I just had a dark local beer. We enjoyed the night (not the smoke). Apparently I'm hypersensitive to smoke and gross smells after leaving lovely Madison. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. :)

Oh and the seagulls flying in the spotlights of the minarets of the Blue Mosque were spooky awesome. As Steve said, it reminded him of the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz and he was spot on. Dun da dun da dunnn da DAAAAAAAAA!!!