Istanbul bus tour; Chora Church
So today sucked.
The rain started pouring early in the morning and didn't let up until a couple of hours ago. But we'd booked our bus tour, and on a bus tour we went. We were the only people on it, apparently other tourists are smarter (or at least less stubborn).
As a part of the tour, we visited Chora Church, another old church that had been converted to a mosque. But unlike with Hagia Sophia, where the converters had plastered over all the Christian mosaics, in Chora Church they'd only been covered with wood curtains, and were mostly in a remarkable condition.
We also took a cable car down from Pierre Loti's hill. The view over the Golden Horn was magnificent from the hill and the café there is probably a very popular place on good days, but we could only stand to snap a few hasty pictures before the wind and the rain drove us back in.
On the drive back I started to feel very shivery and by the time we made it to the hotel (Istanbul rush hour is definitely something of an experience), it was obvious I had a fever. I wanted nothing more than to take a proper hot shower but our hotel doesn't turn on the heating until six or something and before that you can get barely lukewarm water, so the best I could do was bury myself under all the blankets in the room. N joined me for some shared body heat, and together we napped for a couple of hours.
I took some paracetamol and feel okay now but if this doesn't go away, flying back home Saturday is going to get very interesting.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.
The rain started pouring early in the morning and didn't let up until a couple of hours ago. But we'd booked our bus tour, and on a bus tour we went. We were the only people on it, apparently other tourists are smarter (or at least less stubborn).
As a part of the tour, we visited Chora Church, another old church that had been converted to a mosque. But unlike with Hagia Sophia, where the converters had plastered over all the Christian mosaics, in Chora Church they'd only been covered with wood curtains, and were mostly in a remarkable condition.
We also took a cable car down from Pierre Loti's hill. The view over the Golden Horn was magnificent from the hill and the café there is probably a very popular place on good days, but we could only stand to snap a few hasty pictures before the wind and the rain drove us back in.
On the drive back I started to feel very shivery and by the time we made it to the hotel (Istanbul rush hour is definitely something of an experience), it was obvious I had a fever. I wanted nothing more than to take a proper hot shower but our hotel doesn't turn on the heating until six or something and before that you can get barely lukewarm water, so the best I could do was bury myself under all the blankets in the room. N joined me for some shared body heat, and together we napped for a couple of hours.
I took some paracetamol and feel okay now but if this doesn't go away, flying back home Saturday is going to get very interesting.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.