Tourist Day

I finally adventured out into the old city/Sultanahmet area, where everyone goes when they come to Istanbul. It was exhausting! I'm glad I waited until the temperature went down and the tourist season waned a little bit, because it's very crowded and hectic down there. Also, being a female seeing the sights alone makes me very vulnerable to men talking to me and trying to give me impromptu tours. I just can't bring myself to say "Please stop talking to me" when a man starts chatting with me and walking alongside me. Most of the time these men are working in nearby shops, hoping to lure travelers in by being friendly. It's fairly harmless, I suppose, but very irritating.

I started my day by heading over to Kahvedan in Cihangir, a place frequented by foreigners like me and run by a lady from San Francisco. I got a delicious American breakfast of apple pancakes and some Turkish coffee. From there I walked all the way down to the Sultanahmet. I intended to go to some museums first, but one of the aforementioned salesmen convinced me to see the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Mosque) first, since it would be closing for a prayer service soon. He gave me a pretty thorough informational guided tour of the mosque, and in exchange I shopped in his store afterward. It was filled with really beautiful things that were way out of my price range, but I felt kinda awkward leaving without buying anything. I found a really nice pashmina, which he claimed he usually sells over 100TL but would give to me for a special student price of 50TL. I told him that I could never pay that much and asked if I could have it for 20TL instead. He agreed immediately, which probably means I should have shot a little bit lower, but it's a really nice pashmina and the tour had actually been helpful, so I didn't mind.

Afterward he tried to sell me some Turkish carpets, but I was not interested, which I'm sure was disappointing. As my boyfriend (who has experienced the Turkish rug salesman before) put it, these carpet salesmen do long-form sales pitches; they will chat you up for a couple hours and walk you around the city in the hopes that they can get a carpet sale out of you, which is worth it when these things can sell for thousands of dollars.

Pretty pictures! The Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia), as seen from the Blue Mosque:

The Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Mosque), from the Aya Sofya:

The inside of the Blue Mosque (those black lines are cables to hanging lamps):

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Next, I decided to pop into the temporary 1001 Inventions exhibit, which explores the contributions of Islamic scientists, engineers, and mathematicians during the Dark Ages. It was very interesting, and featured the ever-amazing Ben Kingsley telling you how much you suck at history:

My next stop was the Yerebatan Sarnıcı, or Basilica Cistern, which is a very large underground water reservoir from the 6th century. It's also called the Sunken Palace, and it's easy to see why:

I ended the day with a nice stroll through Gülhane Park, which was surprisingly calm and relaxing despite being surrounded by tourist areas. Now I'm back home and completely exhausted from yet another day of endless walking.