Istanbul!

There came a breaking point.  A point where we said, "Enough is enough!"  A point when we rolled up our bedrolls, saddled our horses, and rode into the sunrise. 

When we arrived in Istanbul after taking a night bus out of Thessaloniki, there was great rejoicing.

And we had food and tea to celebrate.  

We had a little trouble figuring out the metro system, but helpful people seemed abundant, and soon we came to Sultanahmet and to our hostel with this window view:

Yes, that is Hagia Sophia.  Rough life?  Yes.  

After a long night on the bus we took it pretty easy that day, just strolling around a little, but not trying to see any major sites.

After a good nights rest, Wednesday morning we were ready to go.  

We first headed to Topkapi Palace, only to discover that the line was longer than a lightyear (well, not really, but it was long) so we diverted our plans and went first instead to the Archaeological Museum.  

I may as well tell you right now, so you are not under any false impressions, that I am a total geek and that visiting the Istanbul Archaeological Museum has been a dream of mine for a while now.  I blame Gabi really.  He would tell us about some interesting find from somewhere in Israel and then say, in his thick accent, "That is in the museum in Istanbul."  Basically, it was an exciting day for me.

While there were many fun and exciting things to see (and many less fun and exciting things - I find that sarcophagi and gravestones get repetitive after a while), one of the most exciting for me was to finally see the original inscription from Hezekiah's tunnel:

I know, it's not much to look at, but that's ok.  It was cool. :)

Among many other famous things, we also saw the sarcaphogus of Alexander the Great.

After a lunch of peanut butter and nutella sandwiches (finding peanut butter = another exciting event in Turkey) we decided to try the palace again, this time with better luck.

It was an interesting experience.  The treasure rooms still display some of the wealth of the Ottomans and are packed with people, ogling at the jewel encrusted swords and lamps, rings the size of two of my fingers, and a diamond not much smaller than my fist.  Who knew that so much wealth existed?

The portrait room displays paintings of the various sultans, like any proper landed family in England displaying their ancestors.

They also have a room with the Sword of the Prophet David, the Staff of the Prophet Moses, the hand and head of John the Baptist, and several hairs from the Beard of the Prophet.

With all that, I think I still liked the garden best.

It was strange, but everything - the towers and turrets, the family portraits, the treasure rooms and jewel-encrusted whatever reminded me more than I expected of fairy tales and stories of European royalty.  I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, but they were more similar than I expected - just with a few twists, here and there.

A meal on a rooftop was a good way to conclude the day, with the sun setting over the city,

and the Blue Mosque lit up for the night.

Yeah, Istanbul is pretty cool.