That's NEAT!

Istanbul view from the Galata Tower

Tyson in front of the Blue Mosque (sorry about the side view)

*** Our pictures seem really dark on this computer and seem to look better on our camera .. which has never happened before and its really hard because its really bright outside all the time and maybe our camera settings are all off.. hmm... I guess you will just have to wait till we get home to see more pictures.. sorry.

Hello hello!

Where did we leave off.. oooh right the next morning after the double C's left we went searching for a Greece Guidebook. But first we curse the double C's for taking the only up to date Greece book in the entire hostel community in Istanbul!!!! We went to every hostel around here which is umm pretty much about 30 and no dice. Then we went to the foriegn book exchange which turns out to be a rip off more on that in a minute. They had a Greece book that was not there the day before however it was only 2000 and the newer one is 2006. So after humming and haaing about it we decide it was worth to buy the new edition from a book store. So Tyson needed some new reading books because he reads alot and he will be reading a whole lot more on the beachs in Greece so we wanted to just get money for our 2 guidebooks that we had been lugging around since China and then wanted to trade a reading book in for another reading book. Apparently you can't do that. Although it says "exchange" on the as Tyson quotes "BLOODY SIGN". But how it works is you get 10 Liras for each guidebook as Tyson again says "BLOODY RIP OFF"! and you get 5 lira for any of the reading books. This sucks because they sell the guidebooks for double the price and the reading books for double or triple! He was not happy, i figured im not lugging these books back to Canada and you need some reading books so just do it! So we did, he was Grumpy for about half the way back to the hostel and then I told him don't be grumpy its how they make money and we just have to deal with it and curse the double C's again for taking that greece guide book.

So off we went down the street to look at the bookstores. They had the newest edition for 6o lira. OWIE! Tyson ran into a guy who wanted him to go to his shop and they got a talking and he told Tyson that there was bookstores around the bazzarr which could probably give cheaper. So off we went asked some people where it was and found it no problem. We went to a couple of places which didnt have it and then found one who did. His original price was 65 lira, and i was like umm what that doesn't make sence its Tea stained and out of its wrapping. So we bargined him down to 55 and then i said no look at the Tea stain so he said ok 50 and we said ok. I figured Baklava's are one lira a peice so that means i can get 10 baklavas with the savings we made.. no worries of us losing any more weight i dont think.. or as Tyson ALWAYS has to mention saving any more money.

Then we walked and walked and saw the University, Tyson had some poops hahah its funny because it wasn't me this time... actually its not funny because it sucks! I told him not to drink the juice in the morning that is made with thier water! He has now stopped drinking the juice and has been fine. We took the subway to find Kariye Camil and we foudn the old Istanbul wall and being Tyson he wanted to adventure into and up and around the wall. So we did... and lets just say this wasn't the "tourist destination". It was sketch central and dad and mom don't read this part... it definently was where the rought part of istanbul started. We met a guy around the wall which told us in Turkish that we should go on the left side of the wall not the right because if we proceed we would get robbed pretty much well thats what we thought. So we decided we better listen to the local and vamuse out of there. So we did and continued to walk and we couldn't find this place for the life of us. Until we stumbled upon a sign.. finally. So we followed it and found it and we were getting all ready to see this not so touristy place.. when we arrived at the gate.. the sign said CLOSED ON WEDNESDAY and Tyson goes.. is today Wednesday and i look at my watch and sure enough it was... DOH!!!!!! All we could do was laugh because we weren't the only ones there.. and we didnt have a guide book. However this one family was looking flustered and they came by and said, "you checked the guidebook too didn't you" and we laughed and said.. no we dont have a guide book .. as they were holding 2 in there hand.. We laughed because thats pretty dumb of them.

So we took the subway back and we walked on the non sketchy side of the wall and got some poweraid to drink as its hot here as usual. The day was nearly over so we decided just to head back to our hostel but not before some BAKLAVA!!!! MMM so good and tasty! We then had a little rest and then went for dinner. Tyson had lamb, i had chiken kabobs and bread as usual.

That night we walked around for a bit and then went to place chess and smoke Hookah. It was Tysons first time and it was cute watching him as he has never smoked anyting in his life. Not that i have by any means.. but i won't say im an angel! He beat me 2 times at chess, and we had the melon flavor hookah. Not as strong as i would have liked. We should have went for the apple flavor but i figured we were drinking apple tea that was good enough.

Today we got up early to move hostels. We then went to the Aya Sofia. It was neat.. hence the title of the blog. It is big, old, lots of marble, impressive, ect, ect , ect. You have to see it for yourself to get the impressions. The mosaics were really impressive as was just the scale of it. After that it took us 2 hours to get it done and 106 photos later, we decided it was time for some grilled corn. So we ate the corn and sat around for a bit before heading off to the Bastillica Cistern which is an underground water storage place built in the 4th AD or something around there. IT was also neat! Very cool, 336 marble columns and 2 medusa head columns vey neat! Plus there were carpe in the water.. and some very large carpe at that.

After that we decided to just take the afternoon and relax. I read some harry potter, tyson watched some tv and then we both fell asleep for a nap. We got up and felt a little groggy but after dinner we felt more energy. We had a mixed grill for 1 which we shared and the large puffy bread again with yogurt cucumber garlic dip VERY GOOD!!!!! After dinner we sat in the park and people watched and listen to the prayer call then went on a hunt for some Baklava. We found a shop to burn another DVD for our pictures and then we also found the baklava store. Now we are here at the internet place.

3 Sleeps till Greece!!!!!!!!!!!! But im a little sad then there is no more Baklava.. probably the best for it is ruining my biking shape. Tomorrow the palace, maybe a ferry ride, and turkish bath. It our last full day in Istanbul tomorrow.

Sara and Tyson