Cairo to Istanbul

I spent a week in Turkey back in 2006 and at the time it was the furthest East I had ever traveled and my first sense of being in somewhere that had origins in cultures that were truly new to me. Approaching Istanbul from the east after the past four months, it's European-ness stands out this time, but certainly doesn't eclipse the immense beauty that exudes from so much of this city. It had easily held the "favorite city I've visited" slot before this trip, and even throughout this trip held its ground in my memory. We arrived without issue in the evening on Friday, and we were both all smiles during the cab ride into and around the old city. We checked into our hostel, grabbed a quick doner kebab around the corner and called it an early night (we're both fighting off colds/the residual effects of Cairo's pollution).

There are an intimidating number of incredible sites to see around Istanbul, with a large number of them congregated around the same area, but it was an easy decision to devote our first full morning here to the Hagia Sofia. The last time I visited, the monument was host to what I am confident was the world's largest piece of scaffolding taking up half of the enormous main chamber as they were doing restorative work on the inside of the dome. It was breathtaking nonetheless, but I certainly don't remember feeling the degree of pure majesty that stuck me upon my return yesterday. Pictures do it no justice.

6th freakin' century

After its hundreds of years as a mosque, it was turned into a museum during the earlier part of the 20th century. It's pretty amazing to see the early mosaic work that has been uncovered and restored more recently.

We wandered around outside for a little while, admiring the famous Blue Mosque that was built across from the Hagia Sofia. Sitting in the brisk midday sun (it is darn cold here), listening to echoing calls to prayer that are traded back and forth between nearby mosques offers a feeling I wish I could share to anyone reading this. Being prayer time, we decided we'd come back a different day to admire the inside.

Pretty sure this guy was in a super mario game. 

Picked up a new hat for this whole "winter" thing that we've managed to avoid until now.

Sultan burial chamber

We spent the late afternoon and early evening wandering around the jam-packed area of the Egyptian Spice Market. Home to stall after stall spilling over with enormous mounds of spices, hanging sausages, feta cheese, and so much more. Vendors here are just as aggressive in tourist-outreach as we've been used to, but almost universally good humored and light hearted. Really looking forward to tomorrow's trip to the Grand Bazaar.

The 'New' Mosque - right by the spice markets

We're not exactly sure what this is - some sort of warm creamy sweetened grain dotted with pine nuts, covering a healthy scoop of sweet vanilla flavored gelato-cheese (?) - it was delicious.

Then back to the hostel for dinner with our friendly hosts - Turkish ravioli. Light meat filling and a garlicky yogurt/paprika/butter/olive oil sauce. Super filling and pretty tasty. I happily accepted a challenge to a few games of backgammon with one of the guys (we traded wins) and then off to bed. 

Today was our first official 'sick day' of the trip. We have a week or so total in the city, so it was nice to spend a full day resting up, and trying to shake off the last grips of our colds. I think tomorrow will be devoted to the Grand Bazaar and sniffing out as many local delicacies as we can find. I love this city.