I have had some sleep now

Where was I? Ah yes, the Blue Mosque or, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, was built in the 1600s to rival it's neighbouring Aya Sophya. Greg and I kind of bumbled around until we found a que that seemed to be for non tour group visitors. For some reason we expected to pay to get in, but as it is still a Mosque (and not a museum like the Aya Sophya), they don't charge you to go in. We took off our shoes and I donned my scarf and in we went. Turns out the scarf is only required to cover your shoulders (?) as pretty much all the non-muslim women had heads uncovered but a scarf across their shoulders. I had the whole thing wrapped around my head for ages (and was kind of enjoying the alternative cultural experience) until I noticed this and just felt like a bit of a try hard foreigner and wore it like everyone else. At any rate, Greg thought I looked cute.


The Mosque itself was really beautiful. The roof is made of soaring domes and the walls are covered in ceramic tiles of flowers. The floor is covered in a rich reddish carpet that reminds me a lot of the carpet on old fashioned churchs back in NZ. Outside there is a courtyard that is exactly the same floor size as the interior building. Greg was very impressed by all the ancient arches and structural stone work. There are also 6 minarets (tower thingies) which make it look very impressive from the outside!

After the mosque we scootled back to the hotel to regroup, (and buy water!) then struck out for the Aya Sophya.

Aya Sophya, Aya Sophya, what can I say?! Built a ridiculously long time ago, it was originally a cathedral, then it burned down, then it was a cathedral again, then in the 1400s Turkey was conquered and it was turned into a mosque. The place is enormous and beautiful, with sparkly golden mosaics crumbling off of the walls all over. Interesting that it was most recently a mosque, while the mosaics are all very Christian!

Greg and I spent ages exploring and taking lots of snaps and going ohhh.

And i'm still barely past midday at this point!

Well, time to get up and dressed. Suprising how much time writing one of these things takes!!

:) Jane