Day 9: September 13, 2008. Take your shoes off.

We started off a lovely morning with complimentary breakfast, accompanied by Turkish tea and coffee. We were meeting a friend of Jocelyn's (Alicia's sister) at noon, so we had a little tome to kill and wandered around Sultanahmet, taking in the Aya Sophia and the Blue Mosque, and watching the other tourists pass us by.

As noon approached, we took a metro across Istanbul toward Taksim. We got off one stop early and went into this (comparatively) small mosque -our first! - and looked around. We were the only ones there beside the man who let us in, and, as is customary, we took off our shoes and covered our heads. The mosque, although not elaborate, was beautiful.

We moseyed on up toward Taksim Sq, bought some delicious juice, and waited for Kate and her roommate, Allia, while trying to remain inconspicuous. We weren't entirely successful, but we held our own.

The next part of our day, while not exactly what we had planned, gave us the opportunity to see a good part of the city on foot. Three and a half hours later, we were back exactly where we began. This time Karla was the frustrated one. But luckily, as soon as we found a bathroom and lunch, everyone was back on track and ready for more sightseeing.

We walked to Topkapi Palace, the home of several generations of Turkish sultans, begining around the 12th century. 36 different sulatns had made their residence there, and the palace itself was large enough to house 4000 servants! As expected, it was beautiful. We had to cover a lot of ground in two and a half hours!

The museum housed the sultans' wardrobes (Hagrid-sized!), the Ottoman jewels and treasures, medieval weapons, gardens, elaborate thrones, and of course, holy relics. Moses' rod was there from the 6th century BC , along with John the Baptist's arm and piece of his skull from the 1st century BC, the beard of the prophet Mohammed from the 600's AD, along with his sword, and the keys to the Kabba. We thought that perhaps other religions would be fighting for these treasures, but apparently they're all in one room in this palace with blue backlighting. Go figure.

After the palace, which also by the way, boasted exquisite views of the Bosphorus, we decided to go inside the Blue Mosque. Whereas the first mosque we entered was humble, this was quite elaborate. It seemed as though every inch of the walls and ceiling were artfully and intricately decorated. There were colorful stained glass windows, and had an enormous prayer space that was filled with worshippers.

We were ushered out before the call to prayer, and so we decided to grab some dinner from the outdoor fair in the park by the mosque, quickly followed by more baklava. We then showed Kate and Allia the little shop we had found before, which turns out to be housed in a 400 year-old former university. The history in this city is amazing!

We said goodbye to our new friends and tackled our next project: laundry in the hostel sink. It was another (necessary!) adventure. We're currently sottong in the bottom bunk in a cave of fresh smelling clothes. At least tomorrow, we'll start off smelling fresh!

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