Istanbul Day 2 - the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia

Our second day (or first full day) in Istanbul we hit up two of the more popular things to see...the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.  We got a fairly early start, mostly thanks to the call to prayer waking us up around 5:30, but after a few cups of Turkish tea we were ready to face the day.

From the outside, the Blue Mosque looks like all the other mosques in town.  It is referred to as "blue" because of the blue tiles used in the interior.  

Beautiful, but very hard to get decent pictures inside!  And while neither of us were overly impressed, it was still a neat experience to go inside a mosque.  We had to take off our shoes and the ladies were supposed to cover their hair with a scarf, although the latter wasn't enforced at all.  

Next up on the Turkey tour was Hagia Sophia, or Aya Sofya, depending on which language you want to go with.  This one was way more interesting, possibly because I studied it was back when in an art history class and at the time never thought I'd get to see it in person.  Hagia Sophia started out as a basilica, then became a mosque, and now is strictly a museum.  It is massive, and even though the outside is fairly unpretentious, the inside is stunning.

Once inside, we lamented not having a tripod for the zillionth time, but balancing the camera on the railings got us a few decent shots.  

Hagia Sophia is also home to some incredible gold mosaics.

And, it is also the proud owner of some viking graffiti.  Way to go vikings.

Sorry for the super blurry photo :(

And that was our day!  By this point we are absolutely in love with Istanbul, even though it's a little annoying to have someone trying to sell you a carpet on every corner.  All part of the experience!