So we stayed in a 5-star hotel that night. It was uh, impressive. I felt out of place as all hell in the restaurant. Next morning, woke up, swam a bit, sauna, into a COLD pool, sauna, COLD pool, steam room (“Finn Bath), COLD pool, breakfast. The best way to wake up, ever. Period.

After that we drove a bit, I feel like we stopped to see something but I completely forget. Anyway there was a ferry across the sea which was kind of fun, met a Turkish kid who offered us cigarettes and may or may not have offered us whiskey, I'm not really sure. He spoke very little English and Nate and I, of course, spoke no Turkish. Also had fun throwing bread to the gulls, there were huge flocks of them around the boat. Back onto the bus, see the Tomb of Mehmet and the Green Mosque, I forgot my camera which was obnoxious. Both very impressive structures, apparently the color of the tiles in the Green Mosque has never been recreated, they're not sure what the composition was to get that exact color. Picked up an Evil Eye bracelet for myself outside the Green Mosque for 1 liira.

Get into Istanbul, go to the Grand Bazaar for two hours. One hour probably would have been enough, but wow. The place is IMPRESSIVE. There for centuries, Marco Polo was there, all very cool. I got a couple gifts for others, John picked up some awesome pipes. I really wanted to get some apple tea but decided against it. I'd love to go back there some day with a bunch of money and just blow it all, much as I normally don't like shopping. Nate bought a pair of sunglasses, which ended in a whole lot of hassling. A big guy came over to talk to me at one point, asked me where I was from, apparently he has two stores in Texas. I didn't see a store anywhere nearby which was why he seemed safe to talk to, but he whisked Nate and I around a few corner to his store. En route a guy asked me “is this guy your friend?” and I just shrugged, he laughed at that. Turned out that guy worked at the same store, a carpet store. As soon as I realized it was carpets I just went “oh no no no,” and they actually let us go pretty easily. It was kind of nice. This one guy selling chess sets said he'd give Nate one for free if Nate beat him, after his first move he said “wait 6 months” for the next one. Supposedly he tricked Kazmarov or whoever the famous Russian guy is the same way. Funny old man, if a bit obnoxious. Fortunately both of the guys who sold to me were alright. I've learned that the best way to barter is to ACTUALLY not have enough money with you.

Had a pretty good dinner, kofte, salad, bread, various things. Ate a whole bunch of raw onion because Brenna didn't want it, which was interesting. We had a great variety of conversations, the most amusing of which to me was assigning animals to each person there. Brenna's a dikdik, Liz is a slow lorence, Nate's a river otter (all smiley), and I'm apparently a red panda? Not sure how that happened. Zypy's a fish because she claims she doesn't sleep. I don't remember anyone else, though Becky might have ended up a lion, we never got that confirmed.

After dinner I just came back to the hotel and sat around, pretty much. Just finished up breakfast and off we go to the Hagia Sophia today

Sunday, March 14th, roughly 9:40-9:50 AM local time