On the day only three young men were able to come, but another joined us later in the day after finishing work.
We caught the bus to old Istanbul, where most of the museums are as well as the Grand Bazaar.
Aya Sofya, or Hagia Sophia, is a must-see that we hadn't seen yet.
From the outside it's a huge, imposing building. Inside it's cluttered with repair and renovation work.
Dimly lit, and hard to photograph. It started off as a Christian cathedral, and then was taken over as a Muslim mosque, before it ended up as a musem. So it is a strange mixture - Christian symbolism overhung with huge Arabic plaques.
The Pudding Shop
I liked the sound of it. The boys wanted to have lunch there. According the the decor it used to be the place for foreigners to meet, back in the 70s and 80s.
The notice board was an important feature in the old days. Apparently this was where you came to hitch a ride across the continent or buy or sell an old combi van. It was mildly interesting. The food was forgettable, and over-priced. (Not much actual pudding.)
The Underground Cistern
We had heard that this was a place worth seeing too.
Dim and eerie, very difficult to photograph. They had appropriate weird music playing as we made our way along the boardwalks over the shallow water. There was constant water dripping, and in places where this was too soaking they had suspended plastic sheets for protection. When we first walked out over the water we noticed tiny fish swimming around. As we got towards the back of the huge underground cistern we saw bigger and bigger fish. The ones near the back corners were monstrous - not just more than double pan-sized, but so fat it was amazing they could swim at all. (I'm sure the bus-load of Asian tourists that arrived were eyeing them hungrily.)
In the back corner are the two "Medusa Heads". There are all sorts of stories about how and why these got here. Of course we had to go and take a peek at them.
One is on its side facing the back wall - with a supporting pillar resting on it.
The other is upside down.
Mystery Tour
Then the boys decided we would go to another place by bus. We all followed the leader and hopped onto a bus. They were laughing and chatting and relating to the other passengers ... when all of asudden they realised we were on the wrong bus - they really didn't have a clue where we would end up. Various other passengers gave their opinions about what we should do ... we just decided it was an "adventure" as the bus ran on at break-neck speed up and down step hills, tossing passengers hither and thither as it twisted and turned through the sorts of narrow streets I would have thought were "no bus" zones. The other passengers didn't seem to mind, I guess they travel there every day - a couple of them were fast asleep, coming awake at the appropriate moment just before their stop.
Eventually we got off at a spot next to the Golden Horn (the waterway that is like an off-shoot to the Bosphorus). We were on the wrong side of the water, and a long way from the nearest bridge.
The boys went down to the waterside and negotiated for a ride with some fishermen, and for a mere lira they transported the six of us to the other side.
The boys thought it was a scream. We felt our adventure was really beginning to get interesting.
The boatman took it all very seriously.
Pierre Loti
Then we climbed aboard a cable car to get to the top of the hill and visit this popular spot.
The hillside is crammed full of tiered graves, but at the top there is a great cafe, and brilliant views.
It was a long day, and we all had a lot of fun.
Two of the boys went off while the rest of us relaxed in the cafe and borrowed a dad's car and drove us all back to Bakırköy, not wanting to risk another wrong bus adventure.
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