Are you Japan? Greece?? Korea??!?

Hello all!
Well, I haven't gone to bed since my post this morning. It's just so hard to nap in this city, because there are so many other better things to do (never thought I would say that). Started the day off by going up the Galata Tower, with it's panoramic views of the city. It's usually really hazy here in the morning though, so the pictures aren't quite as beautiful as they might seem. Still really impressive though. This city is just enormous.

Looking southeast: Galata is the foreground; the Golden Horn is the body of water parallel to it, with Topkapi Palace and the Old City above. The land on the left is Asia, and the body of water receding into the distance is the Bosphorus. Confusing, I know. Just look at a map, ya bum!


Looking southwest-ish; I love the building with the stories-high Turkish flags and picture of Ataturk

Then we walked over to the Spice Bazaar and the mosque next door, Yeni Camii ('Yeni' means 'new' in Turkish, and 'camii' means mosque; in Turkish, the c is pronounced like a j). Got some kind of suspect but delicious meat item in the bazaar for 1.50 lira, or a little more than a buck. Nice change of pace from the 20$ fish/chips/mashed peas combo in Merrie England. The mosque itself (started in 1597; burned in 1660, unfinished; restarted and finished in 1663, so that's why it's 'new') is not even one of the more prominent in Istanbul, but was just amazing. The call to prayer might be my favorite thing here. Its civic and religious function fascinates me, and it is so unearthly and beautiful. I wish that pictures could do it justice. I tried:

The front of the moque is on the left; you can kind of see the mihrab (the prayer niche indicating the direction of Mecca) and the khatib (the elevated platform from which the imam gives the Friday sermon).



The dome; the entire mosque is like a jewelbox, so intricately decorated and colorful

The back wall (opposite mihrab), above door

View of the mosque from the back; not as picturesque as from the front, but more imposing

Watching the afternoon prayers was such a great experience. Then we went over to Sultanahmet again, to see the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia again. We were able to go inside the Blue Mosque (named for its blue tiles inside) Much better pictures than last night:

From the front courtyard. They built this thing in seven years- in the seventeenth century!!!!



Inside; some of the side half-domes and one of the four huge supporting columns (on the left)


You already know. One thing I'd never noticed before is that all the minarets are different, and strikingly so too; built at different times, one is brick, one is very thin, and the others have different bases.


We walked back at 4:30 or so, accosted along Galata Bridge by every restaurant manager and matre'd for a couple hundred yards. One particularly tenacious Turkish guy asked David, who is part Chinese, "Are you Japan?", to which David responded negatively. Undeterred, he asked if he was Greece. David is not Greece. Nor, incidentally, is he Korea, the Turkish man's last guess. We're not sure if we're going to that place or not yet.

That's about it for today- so far. I kind of thought I'd get burned out, but I actually really enjoy doing this. Hope you enjoy reading/looking too! Who knows, maybe I'll put up more tonight ("Are you Russia??"), but hopefully I'll get some sleep.