More to see in Istanbul

Geography lesson for the day:  The city of Istanbul is divided by a river, the Bosphorus Srait, and on one side is Europe and the other side is Asia. You would think the Asia side would be all... Asian-y, but it's just newer Istanbul with skyscrapers. Our guidebook suggested that we take a ferry cruise up the river to see some sights on both sides. There were some cool old palaces that the sultans used for parties or to house important guests, as well as castles that helped fortify the river.

Our vessel. She's a beaut!

Mosque right on the river front built by one of the Sultans

Sultan's vacation home

One of only 2 bridges that cross the river.

Huge castle fortress at the mouth of the Black Sea

 Once we got to the Black Sea, our ferry docked and we had a couple hours to kill before the ride home. Normally you can grab a seafood lunch and hike up to the castle. But, as is our fate..

Grrrr

Raining. Again.

So we did have a seafood lunch (but don't bring it up because Brannan got a headed, eyeballed, tailed, and fully finned fish again and he's still bitter), and waited in the rain for a good while until we could get back on the ferry for our ride/nap home.

So...tired...from... standing around

The next day we went to visit the Basilica Cisterns. Apparently this cistern was built underneath a huge palace for water storage for the palace. Several hundred years later, the palace was only a pile of rubble and some French guy noticed that local people were lowering buckets through holes in their floor to bring up water and fish. He thought that was quite odd, and discovered this huge cistern under the ground.

It was humid and drippy and HUGE! What a cool thing to accidentally discover. I wonder how many other things lie hidden under the dirt that we don't know about.
There were also some random Medusa head carvings used as pillar foundations that apparently no one knows where they came from or why they're in there, and the informational plaques stopped just short of telling us that the aliens put them there. I'm sure it was just some leftover junk from an old temple and they were being resourceful.

They don't know why it's upside down either

Or sideways. Must have been the aliens.

Anyway, very cool place. And a little bit hidden and underrated. But check out these pictures we got taken inside the cistern.

The Great Sultan and his #1 Lady

Ridiculous tourist trap? Yes. Hilarious? Oh yes.

We also went up to the top of Galata Tower, a medieval stone tower and one of the tallest points in Istanbul, which was built by our friends from Genoa Italy. You have a 180 degree view of the whole city which is awesome.

Galata Tower (the pointy one)

While we were up there, it was prayer time and you could hear calls to prayer from every mosque in the city. Check out this video

We also went to see the Suleymaniye Mosque, named after the sultan who built it. It was on top of a huge hill and very beautiful

Nice sunset, right?!

The Blue Mosque gets all the attention because of all the blue tiles covering every surface, but this one was just as big and very beautiful. So neat to be able to see these places!