Turkish Delight on a Moonlit Night

Turkish baklava, Turkish delights and pistachio 

and chocolate Turkish milk pudding were all delicious.

The Hagia Sophia is even more majestic at night. Its great orange, glowing facade seems to rise high above the surrounding park where tourists and locals gather for a peaceful little seat with a view. Men pushing street carts were roasting chestnuts and corn-on-the-cob while the fountain's lights changed from green to pink and blue to purple.

With our stomachs full of the Turkish delights and Turkish tea from the famous Hafiz Mustafa tea house, we strolled around the fountain between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. The moon was out and the buildings were dazzling. I could spend 1,001 nights in Istanbul taking in this view.

Underground Istanbul

But since we didn't have that kind of time, we had packed in some more interesting activities for the day. We took a slightly creepy stroll through an ancient underground water storage facility also known as the Basilica Cistern. 

Built around the same time as the Hagia Sophia in the sixth century during the reign of Roman emperor Justinian I, the cistern was fashioned from recycled columns (taken from various monuments or ruins) to hold up its ceiling of many arches. Some of those columns must have been a little too short to reach the ceiling, so the builders used recycled stone Medusa heads to make up the difference. One is upside down and another is on its side. Don't worry, we looked at Medusa—even took a picture of her—and we were not turned to stone.

The cistern is huge and definitely a good way to spend 45 minutes and 10 Turkish Lira ($5). When the thing was filled to the ceiling, I bet it could hold a LOT of water. Apparently, back in Roman times, they would pump the water from the hillside forests surrounding the city into the cistern. Today, there's only a few feet of water inside—just enough to house some huge koi fish. As if the eery orange lights and colorless fish were just not enough of a tourist attraction, there's also a photo-op area where you can pay to dress up as a sultan and have your picture taken. And of course, there's also a cafe in the underground cistern.     

Clay pots galore

Reliefs from the outer gate of 

Babylon are also displayed.

We also visited the Istanbul Archaeological Museum today. Basically there were a lot of sarcophaguses (or sarcophagi?) and tons of really old clay pots. Kirk was interested in the clay tablets with Hittite (remember these guys from the Bible?) laws written on them. The laws described how much you would have to pay to someone if you caused them to go blind, hit them or hurt them so bad they couldn't work. Does paying 10 shekels really make up for the fact that you poked someone's eye out? Truthfully, I did think the pieces from the outer gate of the ancient city of Babylon were pretty cool. Those were also on display.

I hummed the theme song to “Chariots of Fire” as we walked through the Hippodrome, which is on the way back to our hotel. The Hippodrome (right next to the Blue Mosque) used to be a Roman chariot racetrack complete with enough built-in stands to seat 30,000 people (another thing we learned at the Archeological Museum!). In the center of the track, there were many monuments for decoration. All that's left of the entire Hippodrome today are three of those statues: a stone pillar, an ancient Egyptian obelisk an emperor brought to the city for kicks and a serpentine column missing its snake heads. Today, the Hippodrome is a narrow city square with park benches and green space ... and lots of people trying to sell you a flimsy city guide book. 

The Blue Mosque