The Godfather

Hagia Sophia is a church turned mosque turned Museum, and when we stepped outside this morning that was our destination. We have gotten fairly effecient at getting on the tram, and getting off at the right location so that part of the day went on without a hitch. But as Bilbo Baggins once said, "it's dangerous buisness walking out your front door, You step onto the road and if you dont keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to"...but more on that later.
Hagia Sophia is in one word...enormous. Its nuts to think that they were able to build something so massive and so beautiful with its perfectly arched ceilings and marble stone floors, doors and walls. everything you see and touch feels ancient, unlike the archaelogy museum where everything in it is old, this whole place is old, every brick, every stone has hundreds of years worth of stories inside it.
I must have gone crazy with the pictures but i couldn't help it, there were murals of Mary and Jesus that looked like they had been painted yesterday and were still glittery. Some of the marble floors were so worn with wear that they were indented or bowed in. I must say my favorite part was the sultans box. Similar to a press box the sultan had a seperate box built above the masses where he could participate without touching the rabble below i guess. Our next stop was the Blue Mosque it was incredible, we took off our shoes and wrapped ourselves in shawls out of respect and entered the mosque. Once you get past the initial smell of feet and look up you will be amazed. Once again the high ceilings and the arches and the humbling sheer magnitude of this place just blew me away. I took a few pictures and spent a quiet 30 seconds and then we left. This is where it gets interesting. I was getting tired and hungry and grumpy and Sara mentioned that she wanted to go to some tea place and talk to someone about something.
Anyone who knows me knows that i'm easy going when traveling...if you want to do something fine, as long as i get to do my thing too, i'll go along with anything. So i just nod and follow her. She leads us to the tea cafe and asks for the boss. the waiter leads us to the carpet shop next door where the man takes us inside tells us to make oursleves at home and offers us tea. He says the man we are looking for is out praying and he will be back. As soon as he leaves Sara explains a little more about our situation. She is looking for a Tekke and the boss who is currently praying knows where to go. So we wait...and we wait...and we chat...and we wait...and i get grumpier and less social...and start to zone out and dream about ice cream. And an hour and a half goes by without any word on where this boss guys is. Prayer is long over and my stomach is not getting any less hungry. Just as we are devising a plan of escape (every time we try to leave they tell us to wait and offer us tea).
Two of the carpet workers bring in an older gentleman...the best way to describe him is as the godfather. he is wearing a navy blue pinstripe suit with shiny black shoes, his shirt has a starched white collar and he has silver rings on 4 of his fingers and the sweetest pair of shades i've seen in years. He walks up and starts talking to us slowly and cautiously. He asks us where we are from, comments on our friendship and explains the meaning of the Ottoman Symbol and he asks Sara "how many eyes do we have"and went on to explain we have 4 eyes, the two we see with then one on the forehead and one in the heart. This was starting to seem like an Indiana Jones movie combined with The Departed. Once he called for more tea i half expected him to introduce us to his sons and nephews and make us kiss his hand to show respect. But he kept talkin in his slow particular way and then told us about his car...i'll upload the picture
this is a 1937 car mind you in mint condition and smokin hot....he waves us outside to take a picture of it and i do. At this point i wish i could explain better how this went down but it was the most random awesome thing ever...because somehow he decided he likes us and makes us an offer we cannot refuse.
He drives us back to Taksim in his car, and i couldn't be more excited about this whole experiece and suddenly my stomach isn't so important.
The important thing to take away from this whole story...is that it is imperative that you listen to people. Everyone has a story to tell and everyone has something to say. This older gentleman we met has so much to say and i wanted to talk to him more about everything....there is so much i could glean from him just hearing him talk about anything he wants to while we drink tea. But that goes for alot of situations while you are abroad.
It is so much fun to tour the country with your friends and take pictures of the beautiful scenery, but once you find people and listen to what they have to say they can bring out a beauty in that culture that you can't see with your eyes no matter where you look.

Ciao!
Jessi