Turkey Trip Recap - Day 4 (Monday, Oct 24)
Sorry for the 10 day delay but I just had to finish Assassin's Creed on my Xbox 360. I love those stealth games. Stabbing people and sneaking around.... omg fun. The trip tracker begins where I left off.
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Today was really nice. We got to do our tourist thing. This included a visit to the local mosques... both very large and very historic. There were a handful of smaller mosques that we didn't visit due to time restraints. The two we hit up were the Sultanahmet Camii (Blue Mosque) and Hagia Sofya Mosque. Both were fantastic.
Blue Mosque info and great pics --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Ahmed_Mosque
Upon entering the Blue Mosque, everyone is required to remove their shoes. Women are required to cover their hair and wear a skirt or long jeans. We went through the line, grabbed our shoe bags and walked in. The place is fairly underwhelming from the inside. Outside is another story -- f-ing gigantic and fabulous stuff. It is all the more amazing when you realize how long ago it was built! Prayer time had just ended when we visited so it was fairly calm. The mosque is wide open inside, as opposed to the Hagia Sofya, which is packed full of stuff.
Some pics of the outside from my cell phone:
We then walked a couple hundred yards to the Hagia Sofya Mosque. Read up! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia
This place was HUGE! So many mosaics and giant things inside, like this goddamn huge marble urn thing. A better pic is on the wikipedia page.
Here's a pic of my brother's wife messing around with this weird hole in the wall. It supposedly brings good luck if you put your thumb in and rotate your hand around. Yeah, I don't know.
After it was all over, we went to my favorite restaurant in the entire damn world -- Sultanahment Köfte restaurant! Köfte are these little meat balls/strips flavored with spices. Usually served with a bean salad. This particular restaurant is famous because they have been serving the same thing for 80 years or so now. There are a couple different kinds of köfte... kind of like how there are many different kinds of hamburgers. The Sultahahmet version was the most delicious, ever.
The restaurant was about a block from our hotel. We ate there a few times. On this night, I did all the talking and ordering (in Turkish). It went mostly well. I was so proud.
Pic of the food in question is below. You can see some of the bean salad in the top-left corner.
After dinner, we walked around with a family friend to find me a new suit for the wedding. I ended up getting a really nice Pierre Cardin suit. Pics of it to come later in the trip recap.
We ended the night with a couple beers at the pub near the hotel. It was great to sit around and relax after a long day. Tomorrow, we visit a Navy officer base for a fancy lunch!
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Today was really nice. We got to do our tourist thing. This included a visit to the local mosques... both very large and very historic. There were a handful of smaller mosques that we didn't visit due to time restraints. The two we hit up were the Sultanahmet Camii (Blue Mosque) and Hagia Sofya Mosque. Both were fantastic.
Blue Mosque info and great pics --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Ahmed_Mosque
Upon entering the Blue Mosque, everyone is required to remove their shoes. Women are required to cover their hair and wear a skirt or long jeans. We went through the line, grabbed our shoe bags and walked in. The place is fairly underwhelming from the inside. Outside is another story -- f-ing gigantic and fabulous stuff. It is all the more amazing when you realize how long ago it was built! Prayer time had just ended when we visited so it was fairly calm. The mosque is wide open inside, as opposed to the Hagia Sofya, which is packed full of stuff.
Some pics of the outside from my cell phone:
We then walked a couple hundred yards to the Hagia Sofya Mosque. Read up! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia
This place was HUGE! So many mosaics and giant things inside, like this goddamn huge marble urn thing. A better pic is on the wikipedia page.
Here's a pic of my brother's wife messing around with this weird hole in the wall. It supposedly brings good luck if you put your thumb in and rotate your hand around. Yeah, I don't know.
After it was all over, we went to my favorite restaurant in the entire damn world -- Sultanahment Köfte restaurant! Köfte are these little meat balls/strips flavored with spices. Usually served with a bean salad. This particular restaurant is famous because they have been serving the same thing for 80 years or so now. There are a couple different kinds of köfte... kind of like how there are many different kinds of hamburgers. The Sultahahmet version was the most delicious, ever.
The restaurant was about a block from our hotel. We ate there a few times. On this night, I did all the talking and ordering (in Turkish). It went mostly well. I was so proud.
Pic of the food in question is below. You can see some of the bean salad in the top-left corner.
After dinner, we walked around with a family friend to find me a new suit for the wedding. I ended up getting a really nice Pierre Cardin suit. Pics of it to come later in the trip recap.
We ended the night with a couple beers at the pub near the hotel. It was great to sit around and relax after a long day. Tomorrow, we visit a Navy officer base for a fancy lunch!