Got reacquainted with the delights of a Turkish breakfast (simit, tomatoes, cucumbers, meat and cheese and that nice mix of tahini and grapeseed molasses - sort of a Turkish peanut butter).
The off to Hagia Sophia (Aga Sophia, Ayasofya) - trying to beat the crowds. Topkapi Palace is closed today, so I suspect Hagia Sophia gets all the more attention.
His is the third or fourth time I've visited - best yet. Knowing a bit more about what you are seeing makes all the difference. The outside of the building is very grand - particularly in the old images where you see the church more or less set off by itself. Today it's crowded in with all sorts of additions - old and new: Sinan's minarets, medrasse, the Hurrem Hamam, various tombs - and t)9/3 are just the old additions. So, from the outside it's something of a jumble. The effect is all the more dramatic because as you entire through the lodge and into the world under the dome suddenly it all appears as large and lofty as the sky itself. That, I gather is the intended impact- a highly crafted and ornamented Byzantine universe. All of this overwritten with the Islamic features of worship and decoration. This is another wonderful feature of this building - the layering of a Byzantine and Ottoman art and religion. I took a picture of one corner there in the gallery where they have literally peeled back the Ottoman and Byzantine layers to reveal the old brick and mortar construction underneath it all.
Lunch at Doy Doy - a very nice constant across now three of these trips to Turkey. Good inexpensive food in a beautiful place overlooking the Bosphorous and the Blue Mosque - mostly vegetables and a few pieces of very nice ground lamb or sausage.
The afternoon adventure was hoofing it over and down the hill to Galata bridge and figuring out how to get a nice boat tour up to the Ataturk bridge and back.
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