Next morning we trotted out of the hotel and into the tourbus to see the sights of Istanbul. Even though it was fairly early in the day, the heat and humidity were starting to mount. First off was the Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosque. For those of you who haven't been to a mosque, there are certain dress protocols required of visitors going inside - no bare arms or knees (they lend you scarves or wraparound skirts to wear if you need them - and boy did some of the guys look cute in those wraparound skirts :-) Also, shoes are a no-no inside, so you take off your shoes, and either put them into a shoe-cubbyhole for later retrieval or carry them around with you in a plastic bag. There are lots of nice comfy Turkish carpets on the inside of the visitor's area in the mosques, so your feet don't mind being temporarily unshod. The Blue Mosque is huge, and full of beautiful tiles, stained glass, and Arabic calligraphy. All mosques have some sort of candelabra to light the inside, and the Blue Mosque's was an absolutely enormous wheel hanging just a few feet above our heads (the lights are all electric now, of course - it must have been a real job to light all those candles back in the old days). You can get some sense of how big the candelabra is (we didn't have a wide-enough angle lens to do it justice) here:

A few more pictures of the interior

One of the mosque's six minarets

Next, out from the relative coolness of the mosque to the sun-drenched hippodrome nearby - dotted with occasional monuments the Romans snatched from elsewhere to put up in their new Byzantine capital. For example, this 2000-year-old Egyptian obelisk:

detail from the Kaiser dome - a gift to the sultan from Kaiser Wilhelm

We were supposed to go to the Aya Sofya next, but unfortunately it was in the middle of yet another renovation and was closed to visitors (it's well over a thousand years old, and apparently not in the best of shape).

A view of the Aya Sofya, and a wider-angle look at the Sultanahmet Mosque

So, we got a respite from the heat instead - a visit to Yerebatan Sarayi, the underground Roman cisterns. Apparently the cisterns were forgotten after the Romans left Constantinople, and it was only fairly recently that they were rediscovered - after archaeologists decided to check out bizarre stories from the locals who said they encountered water (and occasional fish) when digging near the hippodrome. They've drained out most of the water, leaving just a few feet (to remind you that it's a cistern, I guess). It's a dark, drippy, absolutely lovely place - you walk along a raised wooden walkway among rows and rows of thick columns, with only a few lights to give you a sense of how huge the place is. The acoustics are lovely too - they sometimes give chamber concerts down there. The fish (yes, there are still fish) are large, slow, and look well-fed (the guards feed them - heaven only knows what they ate in the days the cistern was lying there forgotten by everyone...)

The aptly-named Teardrop and Medusa pillars (yes, they placed Medusa upside down!)

Sadly, we had to ascend back up into the heat for the rest of the day's sightseeing. We trudged over to Topkapi Palace, the former residence of the Ottoman sultans. It's a huge complex, with dozens of buildings and several large gates (one of which was almost exactly tourbus-sized - it was quite a thrill wondering if the buses were going to make it inside or get stuck halfway through).

There are room after room of exhibits of the sultans' treasures. Unfortunately they don't go in much for climate control in the exhibit rooms, so it was very hot and stuffy inside (which I can't imagine is all that good for the exhibits, either). There's gold, jewels, elaborate costumes, tons of Chinese & Japanese ceramics, the finger and occipital bone of John the Baptist (no, I'm not making that up), and various holy relics of the Muslim faith (complete with chanting immam). At some point the Ottomans conquered Mecca (and much of the rest of Saudi Arabia) and took back a bunch of relics with them (annoying the Saudis greatly, I imagine). You can see a couple of Mohammad's footprints, his staff, hairs from his beard, dust from his tomb, etc. etc. The heat was getting pretty bad by now - I was about ready to drop, and even the tour guides were starting to look sweaty and miserable. A lunch break was declared, and we all slogged over to the palace restaurant (so now I can claim to have eaten in Topkapi Palace).

Dining in style at the Palace cafe

The sultans were pretty smart, as it turns out - they positioned their palace so it would catch a nice breeze off the Bosphorus in the afternoon. Once that got going, it wasn't quite so stifling, and I began feeling somewhat human again.

So, off into the (thank heavens) airconditioned tourbus, and thence to the Grand Bazaar. Note to future visitors - skip the Grand Bazaar. It's full of overpriced poorly-made junk, and the shopkeepers won't leave you alone. If you must go to a bazaar, go to the spice bazaar instead - it's much better.

After successfully managing not to buy anything at the Grand Bazaar, we headed back to the hotel. Earlier, we had noticed an Internet cafe across the street from the hotel, so, being the nerds that we are, we had to go check it out. (It's funny - there are Internet cafes all over Turkey, even in fairly small towns, but we didn't see a single one anywhere in Europe.) The Turkish keyboard takes a bit of getting used to - with a number of important letters (like i) in relatively strange places. Finally, our little nerd hearts content, we got ready for dinner. Castor had contacted a friend-of-a-coworker who happened to live in Istanbul, and she graciously agreed to go to dinner with us and show us around a bit. This sounded definitely more fun than the tour-sponsored dinner, so off we went to the Ortaköy. This is a waterfront area with lots of little restaurants, bars, and music clubs. Castor's buddy Shenai (I'm probably butchering the spelling of her name) and her boyfriend Okan showed us a great time, giving us hints on what food to order and insights into what it's like living in Istanbul. (A brief general aside - the food in Turkey is marvelous - a wonderful variety of styles and spices, heavenly desserts, and the various kinds of breads are to die for.) After a long, yummy dinner they had to leave us (they had to get up early for work in the morning) but pointed us towards one of the local clubs for a nightcap. We ensconced ourselves around a little table, and before we knew it the band started back up, playing a mixture of Turkish pop tunes and American disco at ear-splitting volumes :-) You get such healthy bar snacks in Turkey - lots of different kinds of fruit, dried chickpeas, nuts. Beats the hell out of beer nuts, anyway. After a round or so of drinks and a couple of renditions of "I Will Survive" we were ready to drag ourselves home, so we hopped a taxi for the hotel (despite some misgivings, the driver actually drove much more sedately than Okan had :-) Though dead tired, once again I couldn't fall asleep, and spent several more hours listening to the drippy air conditioner...

On to more adventures in Istanbul