Saturday was our last day in Turkey and so Suzanne and I were up for breakfast so that we could enjoy our time. We walked through our local neighborhood and admired the pigeons ../../../Sabbat/2010/06.30-07.18.10SanDiegoSantoriniTurkey/07.10-18.10Turkey// and the mosque on the Bosphorous and the various views with me in front of the bridge before walking past the playground and along the path where the drainage was as it had been in Ephesus making our way around various shops including those selling waffles with toppings and as we would discover later those with baked potatoes with toppings and then made our way past the shoe store and Burger King to catch a taxi to the Chora Church where Suzanne waited while I purchased tickets and we then walked through the flowers along the path

into the church where the mosaics were remarkable

Unfortunately, it was very hot and so our first stop on exiting the church was to get water after which we made our way to the old city walls where Suzanne posed and we recorded the pavement stones before finding a way up on to the walls unfortunately led by a shoe shine man who insisted that he had to shine my shoes for a large price

even though we decided that climbing these stairs was not for us as we preferred the views we got from where we were even as we made our way along the walls finding various locales including the synagogue before getting to the place where the sahabe (apostles to Mohammed who died in the siege of Constantanople) were buried before detouring to a highway below which gave remarkable views of the city

and then once back on the path along the walls, we decided to abandon our walk and instead walked up the hill back to where we were, noting this wonderful shop, and then walked down the hill in search of a taxi. This walk was quite interesting as it took us through a rundown neighborhood of Istanbul with all of the icons of such a neighborhood -- people sitting on their stoops, loud music, laundry hanging to dry, small shops selling few goods, ... -- but because of our concern about not knowing where we were and whether it was safe to photograph, alas there are no photos of this part of the journey.

Once having found a taxi we re-emerged at Taksim Square in the midst of flower shops and the actual square which was home to monuments of the founding of the Republic

all duly recorded here as we slowly left the square noting the Burger King at the head of Istiklal Street where once away from Taksim Square the natives hang out and so we took the obligatory phone booth picture and then proceeded down the street passing the carts and noting the French consulate as we saw narrow streets off to the side but followed the guidebook even as we passed icons from our American life as we noted the street and the trolley came by as we were recording street scenes including the large collection of ice cream cones and the shoes in this window and then down the street to this display of pastries as the trolley returned and we saw the juice store with its display of nuts as Suzanne checked the guide book in front of a shoe store and we passed a store where the locals shopped before looking down the street at the masses and then the halvah store where we bought some excellent chocolate and pistachio halvah and the store with many kinds of baklava all of which made us want to sit down and catch a break and so Suzanne led us to this place where the menu offered water pipes (nargile) in various flavors and so as Suzanne read the guide I began to imbibe and was soon joined by Suzanne as we recorded the works of the device and then Suzanne took a turn

building up her smoke and I had my turn then hers

and mine

and after recording their sign and noting our neighbors who had tried their pipe we quit on the pipe and decided to order some food which amused Suzanne as this scenery was captured by me along with the no smoking sign before we made our way down the street to dessert a the place with this elegant mural and a waitress who took this photo of us as Suzanne enjoyed her Turkish coffee. Next we walked down past the Galata tower and through very steep streets past a person with a mobile Kinko's shop who did copying and printing from his cart until we caught a taxi and sat in a line of taxies all honking their horns to get the traffic cop to change the light but we were more amused by the wedding couple next door. Once back at the hotel, we noted some flags hanging from the Bosphorous bridge along with the traffic and decide to take a cruise on the river which seemed to relax me

and Suzanne as we admired the scenery and took this picture of ourselves even as the views spread across both continents

with neighboring boats and more scenery as we pressed forward until Suzanne decided to span the continents and we moved along past a cemetery as Suzanne ordered tea (something that seems to be a natural on all boats) and we captured the bridge and the views as the sun began to set even as we pulled along and noticed a gathering (perhaps a wedding) and this formal building not to mention the chair on the boat as we captured final scenes of the land and sea

against the setting sun where Suzanne posed and then after our last scenes Suzanne posed and I took the long view to the Old City and said good bye to the bridge as the sun set and we recorded ourselves

and the shore before disembarking into the crowd and finding our way to this cafe where backgammon was accompanied by baked potatoes with many dressings and lemonade. After our food, we completed our backgammon game and recorded our owner who had been very nice and then noted our local mosque and the street scene with mussels being sold and then had a last view of the mosque as Suzanne and I settled for our last drinks and my last raki along with the nuts and chips provided. We watched the advertising boats work their way up the river and then called it a night.