We're Tourists At Last

This weekend, my old (young) friend Jen Gerow visited us in İstanbul from London. Since she was only here for a few nights, we were forced to finally do all those things that we'd been putting off for later. Also, we got to play the games at the flat (other than Turkish Monopoly), most of which are for 3 or more players! We played a fun one called AdVersity! You'd all like it!

We finally saw the Whirling Dervishes, which made Will and Jen dizzy, but was so amazing. Sufis worship the Saint of Love. I really felt like they were vessels through which love was being spread to us all, and not humans at all. Other than the zzhurts and beep-beeps of digital cameras (doesn't anybody know that those sounds can be turned OFF?) the ceremony was very peaceful. A choir sings and people play intruments, but the whirling is totally silent. We have lots of great pictures, and a video to show you!

We also went inside the Sultan Ahmet Camii (the Blue Mosque) and Ayasophia (Haghia Sophia)(the church built in 500 BC that was later coverted into a Mosque then finally into a museum). These buildings are awesome and wonderful and peaceful and beautiful and everything you would expect and more. Buildings just don't know where it's at nowadays. Architects are great and everything, but God can really inspire people to go all out! I could have stayed in the Blue Mosque all day, though not confined to the tiny back area where Muslim women sit while their husbands and sons pray. Unfortunately, the Ayasophia is being repaired so there was 28 stories of scaffolding up to the top of the dome right in the middle of the main room. I know İstanbul is on a fault line and everything, but we payed 15 YTL! Don't they care about tourists at all?? Oh yeah. No.

Now that Jen has gone back home to London, we can go back to doing just one thing a day, and reading books. The weekend was so much fun, and it was so nice to have someone else to talk to (no offense to Will). I think we will take Chloe's advice and go over to the Asian side soon. We can't believe that we are only half-done our trip, but I'm not looking forward to counting down our days here. I'm already sad that I'll have to leave, but it's still so far away, so I'm happy!