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Dueling calls to prayer in Sulhamanet

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This is how we recover from a minute/a lifetime in Central Africa

Dueling calls to prayer in Sulhamanet

Inside the Ayasofia
Despite not sleeping at all the night before, we were not going to waste the few precious hours that we had in Istanbul. Checked into my GORGEOUS hotel really quickly and off we went to Sulhamanet, where the Blue Mosque, the Palace and the Ayasofia (Haggia Sophia) museum are. While walking around stores that sold the usual trinkets (scarves and aladdin lamps and oil lamps) we heard the calls to prayer again. They came from the left and the right and seemed to be DUELING! One after the other, one longer than the other, one more tremulous than the other. It was the most amazing feeling standing between these two mosques and hearing this beautiful chanting/singing!!

We then went to the spice market where we succeeded in spending HUNDREDS of LIRA of on spices. Lord almighty... then we met up with Vera's boyfriend and all had some nargila and tea. We got home at 1am, just 4 hours to sleep! It seemed like ages compared to what we slept the night before though!

To be continued.
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Inside the Ayasofia
Inside the Ayasofia
In front of the Blue Mosque
In front of the Blue Mosque
Irene almost stole the Blue Mosque…
Irene almost stole the Blue Mosq
Inside the Blue Mosque
Inside the Blue Mosque
Inside the Blue Mosque
Inside the Blue Mosque
aww!! =)
aww!! =)
Exiting the Blue Mosque and walkin…
Exiting the Blue Mosque and walk
strangest garbage can Ive ever se…
strangest garbage can I've ever
Beautiful Byzantine mosaics!
Beautiful Byzantine mosaics!
Empress Irene! =)
Empress Irene! =)
Aziz hamming it up!
Aziz hamming it up!
Entering the Spice Market!
Entering the Spice Market!
wow =)
wow =)
so pretty!
so pretty!
yummy!!
yummy!!
inside the Blue Mosque!
inside the Blue Mosque!
inside the Blue Mosque!
inside the Blue Mosque!
Amazing luxury hotel close to airport but far from city center
I REALLY like this hotel. Of course circumstances would lead to staying about 4 hours there, but this is the essence of modern luxury in Turkey - vast pool, tennis courts, great beds, turkish delight on your pillows at night, a huge flatscreen that you can connect your laptop to via a special port in the wall. EVERYTHING. It truly had everything you can imagine!

also available is a shuttle but that runs hourly to the airport from 6:30am onwards, and one that runs 3 times a day to the city center. The city center shuttle isn't the most convenient time-wise, but it's free.

The only weird thing is that this hotel seems to be under some seriously tight security. There is a guard when you drive in that will check your trunk. And when you enter the doors there are metal detectors that don't seem to be turned on, but still. Perhaps once there was some crazy gang-shoot-out here!

The tea room also looks absolutely magnificent, with a view of the water and pool below (see first picture I uploaded) but CLOSES at 1pm, so I missed having tea here! =( But I suppose it was made up for because when we got into the room, there was an air show going on literally.. right outside my window! =) Wish I could've caught a beautiful sunset or sunrise photo, but we got home far too late and left before the sun came out!
tea room overlooking the pool/sea
very nice rooms, though beds are
counter space with lots of switc
beautiful pool with pool attenda
air show outside my window - lit
looking down!
jenn79 says:
Tracy: whoops sorry meant to answer this much earlier. I'll show you when I get back - but you've seen it before, just didn't know it was Turkish Delight - just like me!
Posted on: Jun 08, 2009
TRE69 says:
i agree with jeremy! btw what is a turkish delight?
Posted on: Jun 02, 2009
vulindlela says:
I'm sold on the turkish delight alone!
Posted on: Jun 02, 2009
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