After a day with rain, I headed to the Hagia Sophia first thing in the morning today. I joined a group of Dutch and Malaysian for a tour around the monument. The Hagia Sophia is an overwhelming sight which was built by ten thousand people more than 1400 years ago. They used marble from all over the Roman Empire and cut it with silk string to get pieces with symmetrical veining. Above the marble they made wonderful mosaics.
In the 15th century, Istanbul was conquered by the Osmanic Turks who tranfered the church into a mosque. For this, they covered all the pictures of Jesus, Mary and all the others and put calligraphic writings. Some so big that they could not be removed through the doors when the Hagia Sophia was abandoned as a religious place and was turned into a museum.
Afterwards, we went to the Sultan Ahmet Mosque (Blue Mosque), which was built by the sultan of the same name to show that not only the Romans but also the Turks know how to build splendid religious places.
After a tour around Arrasta Basar and the Mosaic Museum, I took a boat from Eminönü to Eyüp. Off the beaten track you can fınd there the tomb of Eyüp and a lovely mosque, but the place was very packed with Turkish coming for friday prayer.
A bus took me to the Grand Bazar where you can shop for jewellery, leather jackets, glass articles, scarfs, tiles and many more. I bought some shawls and a glass lamp for my room.
To finish this day off and give my feet and body some relax, I went to a Turkish bath - the Cagaloglu Hamami - and got myself scrubbed, washed and massaged.
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