After arriving in the morning, we trekked to our hotel. It’s in the touristy backpacker zone, but a little bit away from the central madness. In an incredibly cute wooden house, on a narrow cobblestone lane. Dropped our stuff, and went out for lunch at a place of Hannah’s choosing, and she couldn’t have done better.

The Blue Mosque

The rooftop terrace at DoyDoy (stupid name, excellent food), had an amazing view of the Blue Mosque. About halfway through our meal, which was a welcome change from the heaviness of Balkan food, the midday call to prayer began. While this was old hat to the other diners, who were mainly businessmen, we were pretty astonished. The warbling tones sound so similar to Jewish prayers, it’s a wonder we can’t all get along. Why can’t we focus on the things that unite us, like falafel?

Then we went to the underground cistern, which was famously used as a chase scene in From Russia with Love.

In the Cistern

While there are walkways instead of just boats now, it’s still an amazing place. Just meters below the surface of the city, there’s a cavernous space supported by columns reappropriated from ancient temples. It’s dimly lit by red and yellow spotlights, and the arabic music adds to the ambience. Tried to get some pictures of the reflections, but without a tripod it’s darn near impossible.

Above ground again, we ventured into the Blue Mosque.

Hannah veiled

Hannah claims this is the most spiritual place she’s been, and I think it gives Notre Dame a run for its money. The dome isn’t as big as that in St Peters, but the airy design gives a better sense of the space. And because there are lights around head level, it brings things back to a human scale. The Ottomans certainly win this engineer’s admiration.

Had dinner at an excellent fish restaurant right near our hotel. Hannah sure can pick ’em, fancy cars kept arriving at the valet. I tried to get them to bring me their most expensive car for us to depart, but without a make and model they were unwilling to bring it around. Seriously, excellent fresh snapper makes me much happier than yogurt covered whatever. I could get used to this.