We are in a small hotel in the old Sultanahmet area, and like many hotels near the water it has a breakfast room on the top floor with views to the Sea of Marmara. So as we eat breakfast we can see a number of other hotel breakfast rooms, and ships out at sea.

The breakfast array we choose from is - bread, hard white and feta cheese, green olives, dry black olives, tomato, cucumber, boiled eggs, and spreads. A good breakfast and one we shall see for a few weeks now I guess.
 
 
 
Then to choose where to go. We have 3 nights here now and come back for another 4 at the end of our time here so can take our time seeing the sights. Quite a few of the top sights are included in the cost of a Museumkaart which lasts 3 days, so we have decided to buy that when we come back here. So for now we will do sights not included on that card.

So first to the Blue Mosque, which is entry by donation. A line snakes around the courtyard but moves along quite quickly. One of the staff members urges everyone to move along, as prayer time is coming soon and the mosque will be closed to visitors. 
 

  
To visit we walk across the area which was once the Hippodrome. The galleries and starting boxes are no longer there, and only a few statues that adorned the site remain. So it now seems like an open area with an obelisk or two. Behind this is the Blue Mosque. Built by Sultan Ahmet I (early 1600s) it has 6 minarets and inside has intricate mosaic tiling and stained glass windows. Shoes must be removed to enter, always challenging with no support and not a lot of room. And my hair had to be covered. While we were inside the massive area of carpet used for prayer was being vacuumed. Seemed a huge job!

We have seen a few mosques in our travels. We learned to live with the calls to prayer from a number of competing small mosques around us where we lived in Doha. We saw the massive and elaborately decorated mosque built in Casablanca at direct cost to people who could little afford it. But just like Christian churches, each country, and even areas within a country have often a distinct style of church or mosque building. And so it is that Istanbul has quite a number of very large mosques that are of very similar style.

With mosques covered, we wandered through the Grand Bazaar. It is a solidly built building, like an old shopping centre, and of of course filled with much the same stuff as everywhere -clothes, pashminas, jewellery, kitchen stuff etc. Further on near the waters of the Bosphorus is the Spice Market, again selling kitchen and hardware type supplies. We sat here near lots of meat roasting, baking, you name it contraptions, and had lunch.
 

 
Which brings me to food. The kebab rules in Istanbul. All kinds. There is the top of the range in the pottery containers (as mentioned yesterday). Then there are plates of salad with kofte and bread, as I had today. Or skewered meat, or roasted meat sliced off the stacked pile. There are vegetarian versions but meat and bread dominate. Although there are very colorful vegetable dishes arrayed in shop windows. Like eggplant with cheese, or stuffed zucchini etc. People seem to buy a number of these as a meal and each come on a different small plate. Off course there are the appetisers often served as a meze plate.

Istanbul is divided in two by the Bosphorus and has the Sea of Marmara on the southern side, so there is also plenty of fish. On our first day here we took the Golden Horn ferry up to Eyup. Great trip and only a dollar or two using our Istanbulkaart for transport. We caught the bus back, and right by the Galata bridge we found a number of stalls selling Fish Sandwiches. Costing around $2.50, they are a piece of bread with salad and freshly cooked fish. We bought a lemon drink also but I wondered what the drink with gherkins in it was. Discovered it was not a drink but an assortment of vegetables in turnip juice that can be added to the sandwich. Have to try when we are back there. We had fish the next night again - anchovies baked in a pan and looking like a cake. But very tasty.
 
 
 
The coffee is mostly good, and of various prices. Our first espresso we ordered the waiter just 'assumed' we would have baklava. We shared four small pieces but it is so sweet it is almost inedible. Coffee and tea are sold everywhere, and there are many juice shops. Orange ans pomegranate seem the most popular.

On the second day we took the tram, then funicular to the Beyoglu area across the water. This is the modern part of Istanbul. A very long shopping street with every kind of shop, historic arcades, and some well known old buildings. The weather was beautiful, around 20C and sunny. But it was a long walk, so by the time we walked back to the bridge near our side of town it was timely to stop for a drink. The Galata bridge has two levels, the top transport one, and then underneath the full length is restaurants, all with staff waiting to pounce on weary travellers with offers of refreshment. So there we sat, watching the boats go by.