Tourist Day In Istanbul

Today you could call us full time tourists.  We saw many interesting historical sights in the old town of Istanbul.  The pictures below describe the day:

 

There were many security guards around town with machine guns.

The Blue Mosque with minarets to call Muslims to prayer.

Beautiful ancient tiles within the Blue Mosque.

The Grand Bazaar, an ancient indoor shopping mall from the 1400s, was overwhelmingly huge and filled  with artifacts and some tourist junk.

 

Hagia Sofia, originally a Christian church built in the sixth century, was converted to a Muslim Mosque in the 1500s.  I was fascinated by the decorative Arabic script and by the fact that the Christians used the large dome architecture before the Muslims.

Carpet sellers are ubiquitous. They are very persistent in their attempt to sell beautiful, ancient carpets.

Wandering through the old town, brought us to an art gallery.  The artist was rude, insulting us and calling us cheap Americans when we would not buy his paintings.

We found a golden window facing from the palace walls where the Sultan would look down upon his people.

At the Spice Bazarr, we found amazing sheep's cheese made within the actual sheep skin, scarves, spices, ceramics, jewelry, and my favorite, Turkish Delight ( a very yummy Turkish candy.)

After our tourist day, we met Huseyin and his wife, Delik, for dinner.  Dad, Mom, Ulrika, and I a gave Huseyin and Delik a ceramic plate decorated with fish and a sail boat to remind him of our week.  We purchased this at the spice Bazaar.  This is Ulrika's last day in Istanbul, and we will miss her very much.

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!