The Traveling Hillbilly Visits a Mosque?

If you don't know much about Istanbul, you have probably at least heard about the Blue Mosque. It was the sight I was most looking forward to seeing.  I decided to do a half-day tour, figuring it would give me a chance to see some of the main sights of the city including the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar

A 7:30am pick up almost made me rethink the whole plan, but at least I'd still have most of day and evening left after the tour.  So up I got and out I went.

The first stop was the Blue Mosque.   I have to say I was slightly underwhelmed.   Maybe my expectations were too high.   Don't get me wrong, it is worth seeing and very majestic from the outside, but when you've seen some of the other churches in Europe the Blue Mosque just doesn't compare.  What is amazing is the fact that about 10,000 people pray there on Fridays.   People pray there everyday, but Friday is comparable to Christian's Sunday so everyone is there and many have to pray outside in the courtyard.

After the Blue Mosque, it was on to the Hippodrome and then Aya Sofya which is apparently Istanbul's most famous monument.   What makes this monument so unique is it was originally built as a church and later converted into a mosque.  Unlike christian churches there are no images or mosaics in mosques.   So now you have mosque that has images of saints, angels, Madonna and Child on one side and huge medallions inscribed with Arabic on the other.  It's no longer used as a church or a mosque, it's now more of a "museum" that is going under near constant renovation.

These were all within steps of each other, so it made seeing them in a shorter amount of time easier.  After Aya Sofya, it was time to head to the world famous Grand Bazaar.   It is definitely Grand and I think a little bizzare!    It's like a gigantic flea market, mainly enclosed with over 4,000 shops inside.   It's crazy and quite the spectacle.  I didn't last too long.  Everyone is really aggressive and you are constantly being bombarded with, "come into my store,"  "come look," "hello, come, come, come here."   It can be quite overwhelming for some and quite frustrating for others.  If you are a shopper and you enjoy haggling you could spend a whole day here.  I am not a shopper, so I came, I saw, I left.

All in all a good day of sightseeing before heading home for some much needed rest or maybe a visit to the spa.