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From the Topkapi Palace

I am so far behind on my blogging that this entry will encompass the last two days of my visit to Istanbul.

On the first day I went to the Topkapi Palace a famous palace that was used by sultans for several hundred years. Outside of the palace was a list of all of the attractions inside the palace but unfortunately the circumcision room was closed. I don’t know why they needed an entire room for that it reminds me of the masterbatoriam from “Running with Scissors”. The palace was full of old valuable jewels, antiques and Islamic relics. Pictures weren’t allowed so I don’t have any included. The weather was fantastic and I sat on a marble slab in the sun soaking the rays and listening to music. If you compared my current music list to that of a 12 year old girl I have a feeling that we would have 80% of the same artists.

To get into the Tokapi Palace you have to go through a metal detector. The metal detector beeps for every person that walks though it because they have metal on them but the guards don’t care they let everyone in anyway.

I went to the Sulyman mosque but got there during a prayer session and as I am not a Muslim I had to wait for the prayer to be over before I could enter. After waiting 20 minutes for the prayer to be over I entered the mosque only to find that it was under construction and the entire mosque with the exception of a 10 foot wide strip had been blocked off.

On the second day I walked north across the river with the intention of climbing a tower to get views of the city but it was foggy again and I didn’t want to pay to only see 20 feet in front of me. Instead I wandered around and found a catholic church. I cannot imagine that there are many of these in Istanbul anymore as 99% of the population are Muslims.

I walked to another palace but I had to pay to get in and decided that I had already spent enough money entering castles and palaces and that this one didn’t hold anything the others didn’t. Instead I walked along the shore watching the fisherman.

When I got back to my hostel the owner was there. There are three people that work at the hostel including the owner and they are all amazing people. The owner invited me to join him at a local hookah bar. I went with him and we had a really good time drinking tea and smoking the hookah pipe with grape flavored tobacco.

Tomorrow (I’m already in London, but at the time it was tomorrow) I head to London and I have to get up really early to catch my flight. I have to meet a bus to take me to the airport at 7:00am.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE BELOW TO SEE ALL OF TODAY'S PICTURES

(NOTE I have 1 link for each day, there are 2 links)

11_23_09 Istanbul small

11_24_09 Istanbul small