My friends woke me up at 1am. By the time I headed back to my hotel they were already boarding their flight. And just like I warned them, it took them a while to get out of the airport. They found a driver and hired him to drive to the city. It didn’t take them 2 hours like it did for me, but there probably wasn’t much traffic at that time. I was so happy to see them!
We caught up for a bit and knocked out around 3am. The hotel’s complimentary breakfast was going to be served from 7-10am. I woke up around 8ish and headed up to the rooftop to see what they had to offer. I ran into their parents who have a room across from us. We all sat together and discussed their trip in Italy. Eventually we decided to wake up the sisters so they wouldn’t miss out on breakfast. They finally came up and joined us.
The weather was acting up. At first it seemed the sun was trying to peek out but the clouds started to roll in. I also noticed that it wasn’t as warm as it was the day before. We decided to get things moving and got back to our rooms to shower up and get ready. First up was the Hagia Sophia Museum.
We walked over down the street from our hotel and I showed them the restaurant I had dined in. We made our way over to the plaza and noticed how many people were already up and roaming around. Luckily, most of the sites are near each other. We found our spot in line and proceeded to wait. It seemed to be moving quickly, but we waited close to 40 minutes. As the afternoon got later and later we noticed the line was noticely longer than when we had first waited. As we got closer the crowd seemed more aggressive. It got to the point that there were some shoving around, but it settled once we all made our way inside. I think people didn’t want to lose their groups, but it did get hectic for a bit.
The Hagia Sophia is massive, and once we were inside we had more space to move around. For the most part, the building itself was detailed more on the dome ceilings and low chandeliers. We found the infamous Hagia Sophia cats napping over by the fenced area. They didn’t seem to mind all of the commotion.
We walked around and admired the 2nd floor when we decided to move along to the Blue Mosque. We headed outside and found the main entrance. My friends’ parents wanted to pray so they walked over to the area to rinse their feet. My girlfriend convinced me to stay in line with her and not go in the visitor’s line, but in the end everyone met in the same area once inside.
Me and my friends stayed at the visitor side while their parents prayed at the other end. For the most part, the carpet in the Blue Mosque was rich and plush. Although in person the lighting was not as bright, my iphone did capture the blue tiles inside. It was a lovely experience and one I will remember in the years to come.
Afterwards, we grew hungry. We passed by the café I had dined the night before and decided to have lunch there as well. My friends loved the food and we even made a friend with the local cat. We figured we still had time to hit one more spot.
We went back to our rooms to freshen up and headed out to find the Spice Bazaar. This time, we needed to take the tram and that was an obstacle itself. Luckily, someone explained to us where to purchase our metro cards and how to use the machine. For the most part, people were very helpful to us. We jumped on the packed tram and headed to our stop.
It wasn’t too bad of a ride. But with all of the people walking around, we knew we our chances of getting there quicker were better off on the tram. We slowly got familiar with the new area, and my friends’ family wanted some Turkish delights. They stopped at a café to rest up before we all made our way to the Spice Bazaar.
Upon entering we had to go through a security check point, but once inside we decided to part ways. Her parents wanted spices and I wanted to look around. My friends were looking for souvenirs to bring back to their family. The Spice Bazaar was a great place to find interesting goodies. They even plastic sealed their spices!
We stayed there until it closed and then made our way back to the tram station. We had a funny moment not knowing that some trams operated at both sides. We witnessed a tram come to a complete stop, and then the driver got off and walked to the other end to jump on and drive the opposite direction.
We decided to stick around our neighborhood off of the hotel to check out that local bazaar. We found a wonderful store selling Turkish lamps and I knew right away I wanted one for my place. It took us a while to find the combinations we wanted since they were all so beautiful.
We walked over to our hotel, but my friend grew hungry again and went to a local restaurant nearby and picked up some food. We stayed up talking most of the night and made some wonderful memories. I miss them now that I’m thinking about them...
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