Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

We stopped for lunch a short walking distance from Topkapi Palace. There were a number of restaurants along the street, but we opted for a quick bite since we still had two other places on our itinerary, the next one being Hagia Sophia.

The food in the little restaurant we ate in was meh, I ordered the chicken kebab which came with rice and some salad. It was interesting to note that the waiter gave us the bill on a piece of paper with the charges handwritten on it. But they did have hand-held POS (point of sale) systems to run credit cards and print out the receipt at the table.

After lunch, we walked to Hagia Sophia. This iconic mosque had a checkered history. Constructed in 537 AD, it was an Eastern Orthodox church, became a Catholic church after the Crusades, reverted back to Eastern Orthodox and became a mosque with the Ottomon conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Since this was now a mosque, women had to cover their heads with a scarf. Or, for those who did not have one and were wearing raincoats, putting the hood over the head sufficed, although scarves were available for loan at the door. We also had to take off our shoes. Our tour manager distributed plastic bags while in the bus, so that we could carry our shoes with us instead of leaving them on shelves at the entrance and risk potential loss.

I had been to Hagia Sophia on my previous trip to Istanbul and had full access to the entire mosque. Recently, the main (ground) floor of the mosque was open to Muslims only, and visitors were allowed only on the upper floor. This limited what we could view. Our tour manager said that the staff could determine if a visitor was a Muslim by asking them to recite verses from the Koran. Fortunately, the renowned mosaics in Hagia Sophia were on the 1st floor and we were able to get pretty close to take photos.

After the short visit to Hagia Sophia, we walked over to the Blue Mosque. However there was a very long line of visitors waiting to gain entry. By then many of us who were still jet lagged, had enough. Metin, our tour manager, decided to postpone the Blue Mosque to the next morning, to the cheers of our group. We were very happy to return to the hotel. Too tired to go out for dinner, a friend and I ate in the hotel's other restaurant, Balat Meze. The food was great, we ordered some mezze (small plates) to share: the beef tongue was interesting, humus and tzaziki was standard fare, while the grilled sea bass was excellent (forgot to take photos). I also ordered tahini souffle with dondurma (Turkish ice cream) which was to die for. There was even live music. We did not stay long due to cigarette smoke that drifted into the restaurant from the tables on the outside.

Side note: on the way back to the hotel, our bus was blocked by a car parked at a turn. The driver could not be located, our tour director said it was an out of town car based on the license plate. After about 15 minutes, with a long line of vehicles behind us, a group of helpful men took matters into their hands. They lifted the car and moved it closer to the curb so that our big bus was able to make the turn. Problem solved!