Today is a big day. We have been looking forward to the entire trip. It started off with a text from Robin saying there were dolphins in the bay.
Due to the holiday EID Viking did not arrange any optional tours as they had a very difficult time with the tour operators. It was a very poor choice of timing to arrive in Istanbul on this day.
We were however able to hook up with our friends, Mark and Shirley and go on their private tour they had arranged
the tour guide was really nice and he was a wealth of information. Like many of the tour guys we've had in this part of the world, he had went to college and learned solely to be a tour guide with an education in religion and history.
Our first stop was the
Pudding shop . This place was a cultural icon for travelers in the '60s and '70s pre-internet.
After the pudding shop we went between the Hogia Sofia and the blue mosque up to where the hippodrome was.
From the pedestrian Mall between the mosques we entered the blue mosque or at least tried to. They had 10 security guards for the men and just two for the women. The women's lines were much longer and they were much more aggressive and downright mean to the point of pushing and trying to hurt the foreign terrorists. Martha and Shirley eventually had to get out of the line after being punched and kicked in the knee. Mark and I were on the other side of the security line with the guide and when they texted us and let us know what the situation was.
After the blue mosque we headed back to try and get into the cistern again. This time we were successful
I could post dozens of photos from the cistern and it would not do it justice. Absolutely amazing!
Afterwards we had lunch at a famous restaurant for recreating the recipes of the sultans from the ottoman empire.
A little shopping before we head to the palace museum.
On to the secret back room then the palace
as we were at the palace it started to rain. Total downpour so I covered my head with a plastic bag.
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