Food Day is a Good Day

Yesterday we went Hagia Sophia, a former basilica turned mosque that is now a museum, in the morning and went to a giant shopping mall in the afternoon. The shopping mall was enormous, with 7 floors of shops, a movie theatre and a food court.

Today started out terribly wrong when we woke up too late for our free hotel breakfast. I love eating and I love free, so missing out on that can’t ever be a good sign. The day quickly got better when we found a nice little corner restaurant that was making ham and cheese sandwiches and fresh squeezed orange juice. We were going to the old gates today to the Chora Church and as such were walking a long way across old Istanbul. We passed a candy shop and went inside to look around and bought some Turkish delights and chocolate covered chestnuts and were given a generous portion of this hazelnut fudge like stuff for free. All three were amazing.

A little further on we saw a shop selling honey coated churros and stopped to eat those also. Of all of the days in Istanbul today was the warmest, least windy and sunniest, and it felt really nice walking all over town.

The Chora Church was really beautiful inside with some of the most impressive mosaic work I’ve ever seen and then we made our way to the Süleymaniye Mosque where I was able to record a video of the evening call to prayer.

The last time I was in Istanbul, I stayed at a hostel with a really friendly owner that took me to a cool place for smoking Sheesha and so Janelle and I went there tonight and met a nice Turkish guy who had lived in the UK the last couple of years and we had a nice chat with him about Istanbul.

On the way out of the Sheesha place we bought some sesame seed bread that was warm and delicious and a nice appetiser before we went to get dinner. I love days that are filled with walking, sunshine and food.

Tonight the wind has really picked up and it has even started to flurry, hopefully it doesn’t snow too much as we are supposed to fly to Seoul tomorrow night and I doubt they have snowplows and de-icing machines at the Istanbul airport.

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