track our trek

from rome we flew to istanbul by way of athens...we spent the night on a bench outside mc donald's  in the athens airport...not the most comfortable digs, but it was free, & the guy from mc donald's even gave us free coffee at 6am! we decided to skip the 25 euro hotel pickup from the airport in favor of the 5 euro train ride to our hotel in sirkeci, istanbul. we rode the tram through the city past beautiful old mosques...amazing to see them with their minarets towering above the city...our hotel was only a few minutes' walk from the famous haghia sophia and the blue mosque.
it is one thing to study the haghia sophia in architecture school, and another thing entirely to see it in person! it was built in 537 a.d. during the heydays of the roman empire and was the largest church in christendom for nearly 1000 years! in the 15th century, when the ottoman empire took over istanbul (then canstantinople), the church was converted to a mosque...i remember reading about this conversion in school, but it is incredible to see some of the intricate mosaics which were plastered over now being restored! across the way, the architecture of the blue mosque is much more delicate, but equally impressive.
we spent a couple of days walking around the city visiting historic sites, indulging in turkish coffee and baclava & desperately avoiding carpet salesmen...jokes! on our last day we treated ourselves to a traditional turkish bath where we both got massaged and scrubbed down by two burly turkish men! it was quite a lot of fun, & we came out feeling relaxed and squeaky clean! after our baths, we met up with our dear friend hakan, who is from izmir, turkey, and happened to come home for a few weeks of mandatory miltary service. it was so nice to see him and meet his brother.