Day 425: Turkish Delight(ed)

Istanbul, Turkey

Being in Sultanahmet allowed me to hit up a few major sites of Istanbul in a short period of times. By 1 in the afternoon, I finished checking out AyaSophia and the Topkapi Palace. The entrance fee for both are steep so I resorted to doing free stuffs for the afternoon.

AyaSophia is just as grand as I had imagined. This building had been a church, a mosque and now a museum. AyaSophia is still standing here today since the Byzantine era all owing to its beauty. When the Ottomans took over, they were reluctant to tear the church down and converted it to a mosque instead. Overall, The history of Turkey is a complex and rich one.

As for Topkapi Palace, I really have no clue of its background story so here a Wiki entry.

In the afternoon, I joined a CS free walk of Istanbul’s “Golden Horn” district. We started off at the Spice or Egyptian Bazaar. The walk brought us to a few mosques, a Boza cafe, and the Orthodox Greek Christian neighborhood.

The CS group mainly consisted of locals and a few foreigners from Iran, Russia and Germany. We ended the walk back to the Eminonu quay by Sultanahmet where we all had the famous “Balik Emlek” (fish sandwich) sold from the boats docked at the bay.