Turkey Day 3

We slept in til about 9am and had free breakfast on the roof of our hotel (after a nice Skype chat with my boyfriend <3).  Below is the view from the roof. It was chilly and overcast this morning but after the sun came out it was quite warm!

Our hotel - Antique Hostel, friendly staff, great neighborhood!

 

We walked over towards the Blue Mosque and I grabbed this photo of my parents.  There was a huge line to get in to the Hagia Sofya so we decided to skip that for now.  We went over to check out the Blue Mosque.  its a total tourist trap so there were tons of people.  When you enter a mosque you must remove your shoes and women have to wear a head scarf.  My mom had one, but I just had the hoodie to my sweatshirt!  It still worked.  We were escorted by a guide who attached himself to us (he was trying to get us to buy rugs from his family) and we walked around there for awhile

After seeing his family's rug shop (and not buying anything) we wandered towards the waterfront and came across another Mosque, my favorite so far.  It was the Ayasofya Mosque and much less crowded. 

Can you spot my parents??

 

  

My mom inside the mosque

Some cool houses outside the Blue Mosque

After a long walk through some narrow streets we came to the Grand Bazaar, the most famous in Istanbul.  It was crazy huge and had hallway after hallway. The rug sellers were the most pushy.  We walked around there for about 30 mins and then stopped at this place below for some lunch.  We had lamb and chicken and it was fantastic!

After lunch we walked back to the hotel for some rest!

I took a 2 hour nap!  Wow I never do that. We ventured out just before sunset for some food.  We walked through the Arasta Bazaar first without finding anything too interesting. More rugs and anti-evil eye trinkets. 

We had to go to the ATM, so we wandered up by the Sultanahmet trolley stop.  We had pizza and Efes beer at the Sultan Pub.  On our way back to the hotel, we passed the Blue Mosque at night again. Love it.

And after looking at them a million times I finally broke down and bought a 30L small lantern for our house.  I love it, its white and turquoise.  These are my favorite thing about Turkey! 

Overall a fun day of siteseeing!  We will do a little more in the afternoon tomorrow and then off to Addis Ababa!!