Today we had the pleasure one last time of Levant, our guide for the past few days as we went around the Turkish country side. Levant has been good to us explaining a lot of things to us. Not just what we saw but a bit about the Muslim Culture to which he belonged. Thanks Levant for all your information 
We went down to Sulemaniye Mosque which is one of the oldest and biggest mosques in Istanbul. I was wearing short so I had to don a wrap to cover my legs which Estee thought was rather amusing and happened to take a photo of the event. Little does she know it isn’t the first time that I have been in a skirt. Ah they were the days 
It was a very nice mosque and impressive with the domes being in excess of 40 metres in height. Not bad considering the era that it was built.
Of we then went to the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Camii). This probably one of the more well known Mosques around the world. It got its name from all the Blue tiles that is in the mosque around the pillars holding the structure up. Although it has undergone some renovations and the colour hasn’t been matched to the original and it has probably lost some of its original appeal.
The Basilica Cistern was the next stop. What is it I hear you ask … Well it is an undergound water storage facility. Water from the nearby forests is transported along teh Bezintine Aquaduct into this underground storage areas. It is really an amazing thing to see. Although I am not sure that it was lit in the way that we saw it many years ago. There is a restaurant down there too if you don’t mind getting some water on your head while you are eating.
The Archaelogical Museum (aka Hagie Sophia) is an old Mosque which in turn was an old Church dating back to 500AD or there abouts. Again one of those buildings you look at and wonder how they built the structure without a lot of the modern equipment that is used. they are currently doing restoration of the dome and removing some of the plaster that was used to cover the original Christian symbols before decorating it with the Muslim design.
After a quick bite is was then the thing that all women love … SHOPPING!!!! The tour was over and we were let loose on Istanbul and more importantly for the girls at least, it was time to hit the Grand Bazaar. Off we went to see the female mecca – bargains galore!! Well that is what they were hoping at least!
It wasn’t too bad looking through it. It wasn’t as crowded as I thought but amazingly we kept bumping into Kiwis and Aussies as we walked around looking at the rings and bags and .. and ….. Estee was on the hunt for a ring and she thought she had found one and asked the price …. 11000YTL … about the same in AUD! ouch!
We … I mean Estee eventually found one that she liked and we did a bit of a bargaining bantar but not sure if we won or lost. Not to worry all was good. We kept walking around and the shop owners we always coming out and being honest about what they wanted …
“Come in to my shop and let me help you spend your money”
One guy came up to me and said he liked my hat and started to talk to us and then spoke to Estee about South Africa. He asked if we would like to come back to his shop for a tea. We were a little thirsty so thought yeah why not could do with a good sit down in a chair sipping on some apple tea. When we got to his shop, we found he was a carpet salesman … We looked at each other and sort of laughed. We chatted, not too much about carpet initially and drank the tea. We then started to get the hard sell … Wasn’t too hard but it was a sales pitch. Estee said we had to hurry to catch our tour bus so up we got and left – very nicely of course. Unfortunately, we came across him a little later on when we were trying to leave the Bazaar. Wasn’t too bad but was funny to us.
Posted by telfie 
