Istanbul, March 2015

I have two big memories of Istanbul:

1. stomach issues the whole time
2. I'd never been in a Mosque before

Took a one day tour.  After my great experience eating the herbs in the St. Pete Georgian restaurant, I had some parsely from the breakfast buffet at my hotel in Istanbul (Radisson Blu) .  What a mistake.  During the tour my stomach begins to cramp and at lunch I can barely eat a thing -- which never happens to me.  But yes, I did have room for baklava.  A nice young girl from Bangladesh was on our tour and all she did was talk to me.  At one point I wanted to ask her to shut up because I'm afraid of having terrible diarrhea and my head is pounding, so please stop talking.  No, I don't want to tour with you in the afternoon.

Here are the things I saw on the tour:

Blue Mosque

Hagia Sofia
Expensive rug place
Topkapi Palace
Spice Bazaar (Grand Bazaar is closed on Sundays)

green tiles -- they say they must be
guarded or get stolen

look a@ the intricate tiles

Beautiful tiled dome 

left my headscarf (required) in hotel.
had to borrow one (tourist!)

All of these pictures are from the Blue Mosque (named for the blue tiles).  It is a working mosque with people praying.  There's a women's and men's section.  Also, many of the mosques we visited were previously churches.  When Empires changed, different ruling groups took over and brought their religions with them.

First night in Istanbul I heard a singing praying in the streets at night.   Surprise:  next morning:  wake up!  Prayers are called five times a day on a loud speaker.  Come to pray -- natural wake up call.