Riking Biking and Swimming. What did I say?!?

Istanbul was so fun! We met Emily there, and spent about two days visiting museums, eating good food, and laughing at Bryson's messed up words.
Here are some pictures from the trip...

Bryson, Rob, Rocco, and Emily outside the  Sultan Ahmed Mosque, or more commonly known as the Blue Mosque. It was SO huge! I guess I'm use the small ones here. We also went inside, where it looks just as huge. You could see it from the breakfast room at our hotel. It's pretty amazing.
There is also a church right next to it that looks similar. Rob and I didn't go inside, but Emily and Bryson, and they said it was pretty awesome. It had been raining a lot, and Rocco had the umbrella, so I went back to the hotel to change during that time.

Second, we visited the Topkapi palace. "Topkapi Palace was home to all the Ottoman sultans until the reign of Abdulmecid I (1839-1860), a period of nearly four centuries." They had a lot of pretty great things there. According to them, they had Abraham's saucepan. We aren't really sure how they figured out that it was his saucepan, but who am I to question the saucepan??

These few pictures are of the Harem. I guess that's where they stored their lady friends. It was a pretty fancy place, tons of painted tiles, gold, and pretty designs. On the other hand, it was cold, dark, and creepy. Knowing that tons of women lived there for a good part of their lives, not leaving, only seeing the Sultan, his sons, and the men that wanted to be with them. History isn't so beautiful usually. I guess it's good to know, and I like seeing old things. It's disheartening to know what people did to other people. What people are capable of. 

While we were going into the Harem, the rain started coming back. I haven't seen so much rain in...well, a long time. It was really nice, but would have been helpful to have had an umbrella. Outside the mosque it was raining a little, so I got one for Rob and Rocco. The guy was being annoying, so we just got the one.

 Later, when we were soaking wet, walking in the rain, I wished I had given in the extra 5 lira. We did finally find a guy selling some and bought more.










I don't know if you can read this, but it says "Throne made for Murad the IV to watch sports activities of pages." So, we all look for a min and Bryson says 'So, that's where he sat and read the newspaper??' I guess all he got out of sign was sports pages. It was super funny. I think we will always have to make fun of him for that one.

Lunch was SO good that day. We ate at a Turkish restaurant. I had the couscous and vegetables.

When we got home, I got dinner from the Turkish restaurant here. I told them I just got back from Turkey, they didn't seem too impressed. I'm not sure if they are Turkish. Or, for that matter, if they even understood what I said.

After lunch, we went back to the mosque, did some people watching, and waited for it open after prayers.
After that, we went to the Underground Cistern. It was really cool. Not somewhere I'd like to spend a lot of time, but was fun to see. There are two Medusa heads down there, and no one knows how they got there. While that is interesting, and quite the mystery, no one knows. It lacks plot, as Emily said." The Underground Bascilica Cistern or 'Sunken Palace' today is a atmospherically spotlighted massive underground water cavern of beautiful arches and Roman support columns and their watery reflections, and used to be the Byzantine city's main water storage under siege or in hard times..."

You should really go to the link , there are better pictures. Our camera battery was dead, so I was just using my phone.