Istanbul Day Üç (3), Part İki (2)

Turkey Time again!
After Rob and Leigh's proposal in front of the Hagia Sophia, we went to the Blue Mosque, below, across the square.

 Us ladies had to cover our hair to enter the mosque, so we had bought head scarves the previous day.

 This is the inside of the mosque, with the prayer section roped off.

The room smelled like feet :-/ (Everyone had to remove their shoes before entering.) 

 On our walk up to the Architecture museum, we passed the Topkopi Palace, where we saw this dog:

Walking down a steep street

More stray cats 

 At the Architecture museum

 A friendly ginger stray

 The exhibit of the sarcophogi

 They were carved in such great detail!

 This was the ceiling exhibit at the staircase. On the flipside of each card was a photo of a relic.

 In the Ceramics and Tile building

#realwomenhavecurves

 The lower level of the museum was undergoing an exhibit change so it was closed to the public.

 Upstairs in the small objects wing:

The staircase: 

 Medusa!

 Looking at negatives from old archeological digs. To see the positive image, I flipped the colors of my iphone in General Settings -> Accessibility. On the iPhone screen, you can see the positive image!

 We tried a Chinese sushi place...

 But unfortunately, it was underwhelming.

 Still hungry, we went to a place on the main drag in Istanbul called Mom's Corner.

With seating low to the ground, we ate on pillows at low tables, lounging between bites. The waiters would sit at your table to take your order.

 A close-up of Leigh's stand-in ring that we bought earlier that day.

A woman making fresh gozeleme (Turkish pancakes) at the restaurant. She was filling this one with feta cheese.

European lemonade!

For dinner, I got saffron rice with mushrooms in a cream sauce. It was delicious! I ate the whole thing.

We walked in one of the baklava stores to get a few pieces each. It was in this store that I found the most delicious halvah I'd ever had, and it didn't taste like chalk!

Before the night was over, we went out for beers at a hotel's rooftop bar lounge.

These are my baklava snacks:

And chocolate mushrooms I bought at the spice bazaar: (These are filled with creme :-)  )

Farewell, Istanbul! We left the next morning to fly to Frankurt, Germany, where we began our European road trip by car.

Istanbul/Europe Lessons:

1. Always have 1 lira or 1 Euro coins on you for the bathroom. You will most likely have to pay to use public restrooms.
2. "Public Restrooms" does not always mean "rooms with toilets." You may find that some "bathrooms" are actually just stalls with ceramic holes in the ground with buckets of water next to it to wash away any human waste that didn't make it into the hole. Also, wear waterproof shoes if it's your first time attempting a "squatty-potty" as a female, because you might need to rinse them off...
3. Cats are Turkey's squirrels. They are cute, but not always 100% healthy.
4. Turkish is not a language you can pick up in three days. BUT, if you have an Android phone, download the offline dictionary with photo translate so you can read signs and menus.
5. You will be strongly encouraged by just about every restaurant maitre-d' or carpet salesman trying to get you to come into their establishment.
6. Research the dates you are going: things might appear to be open on their websites, but a lot of places close for winter holiday or company off-time. 
7. Plan for rain. Every day.
8. People are very friendly in Turkey: try saying "teşekkür ederim" (thank you) and "merhaba" (hello) and they'll break out into a smile :-D

Ciao!