Sultanahmet!

So yesterday was quite a day. I went to an Amnesty annual press conference in a very fancy hotel and proceeded to not understand anything. It's gonna be on Turkish news though. So I guess I can pretend I'm famous here already. After that, ate, bought a map, went home and prepared for a day excursion. I don't know if this will work, but here's my route: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=112557521566662635719.00046b0517a30a8032132&ll=41.023168,28.981333&spn=0.060092,0.154495&z=13

I walked from my apartment to Galata Tower first. It's this huge power built by Justinius I and you can get a ridiculous 360 deg. view of a lot of Istanbul, including all the big famous mosques. 10 lira to go up. Compare this to the $10 it took to go up on the walls in Dubrovnik. It might have been more actually. After that, a man beckoned me into a hookah shop (this is a theme for the excursion) and tried to sell me hookahs for RIDICULOUS PRICES. upwards of 350 lira ($1 = 1.5 lira). I laughed and left. Walked over the Bosphorous then only to learn that people here fish for snappers! Just like in Norwalk. Small world. They're way tinier here though, and I don't know if they ever become full grown bluefish. After that, I walked to the Egyptian bazaar, got convinced to buy half a kilo of orange tea for 15 lira (originally 20; what a bargainer I am...), but it does smell delicious so whatevs. Proceeded to walk by a shop selling amazing hookahs about every 10 feet. It was so bad. I'll resist the temptation as long as I can. Plus they aren't exactly cheap. About $50 and upwards. I think they're worth it though. They feel solid and might actually be all brass. All Syrians though, very few Egyptians. No matter, I could use a Syrian hookah. After that I walked across the street to the Yeni Cami (New Mosque) and chilled there for a bit. Then I walked to the old Oriental Express train station (Sirkeci Gar), went to the Topkapı palace only to realize it was way too big to explore that day. Then I went in front of the Hagia Sophia to find it closed for the day and have a guy who knows some Bosnian talk to me:
"Where you from?"
"Bosna. Bosnia."
"Ah. Dobar dan.
"Dobar dan."
"Kako si?"
"Dobro, ti?"
"Christian or Musliman?"
"What? no. Musliman."
"Ah. Alhamdulillah."
"Alhamdulillah."
Then he tried to walk me over to the factory where they make leather coats so I can see how good and cheap they are and buy one. Do I look like I wear leather? No sir. After that little convo I went to the Blue Mosque and pretended not to speak English; man do people leave you alone quick! This one dude seriously looked like what I assume the devil in human form looks like: slicked back black hair, slightly tan, ridiculously white teeth, impecibly clean and tidy suit with a red tie and speaking English with an accent. I still have no idea what he was trying to sell. But yeah, stayed at the Blue Mosque a bit then started to walk home. Last thing I did was smoke hookah under the Hagia Sophia. What a day! I took like 300 pictures but I'm not gonna upload them for a bit cause I'm a tease.

Till next time. Peace.