2014 Biking Turkey Daily Snippet

8 October, Istanbul
Haci Mimi Apartment 53TL

A lovely day in Istanbul; vague plans and mindless meanderings under intermittent cloud. We took the Golden Horn ferry up the waterway and past the transport museum to the port that serves the Chora church museum, which unfortunately is closed on Wednesdays – bad planning on my part. But enjoyed our stroll through this little-visited area of the city and climbed a couple of sections of the ancient city walls, built during the reign of Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II, for panoramic views. Back in Sultanahmet historical district we admired the German fountain and the Egyptian obelisk near the Blue Mosque then paid a visit to tranquil Little Aya Sofya*. We wandered then, aimless as clouds, through the bazaar behind the mosque, filling our visual and tactile senses with beauty beyond our budget and our olfactory senses with apple tobacco wafting from nargile (waterpipe) cafes and our (Charl’s) gustatory (had to look that one up) senses with mussels served on the street stuffed with rice and dribbled with lemon. By the time we crossed the Galata bridge on our way home it was already dark, the fishermen on the bridge still trying their luck.

*Lonely Planet: Little Aya Sofya mosque (formerly Sergius & Bacchus Church): Justinian and Theodora had this building constructed some time between 527 and 536, just before Justinian built Aya Sofya. It was named after the two patron saints of Christians in the Roman army. Its dome is architecturally noteworthy and its plan – that of an irregular octagon – is unusual. Like Aya Sofya, its interior was originally decorated with gold mosaics and featured columns made from fine green and red marble. The mosaics are long gone, but the impressive columns remain. The church was converted into a mosque by the chief white eunuch Hüseyin Ağa around 1500; his tomb is to the north of the building.