The Blue Mosque

After I put my tongue back in my mouth and stopped drawling we headed for a 1km walk to the Blue Mosque.

Now this is where one gets harassed, really harassed by Turkish street sellers their is one every meter or so. It's a polite no thanks here a no thanks there, a hay Aussie do you want to buy a hat, no thanks I have one!!
Then all the scarf sellers start with the harassment saying lady you can't get into the Blue Mosque unless you have on. Our guide tells us that they have loan ones at the mosque so unless you really want one keep walking.

We line up for about 30min until it our time to enter, off to our left is the many marble alcoves with rows of solid little 300mm square timber stumps. These are rounded off with years of bottoms sitting on them while they wash their feet, hands and face before they go into pray 5 times a day. The rows of ornate brass taps all so perfectly lined up 600mm of the stone floors with white marble behind. Towering above us is the huge dome and the 6 conical towers that make up that classic postcard look of The Blue Mosque.

Finally up the 30 marble stairs with supplied shoe bag in hand it's off with the shoes and onto the bright orange and red patterned carpets that cover the entire floor.
Looking up this was quite a humbling experience one feels so small in the huge tiled multi domed space. 100 of 1000's of teal and blue tile adorn the entire domes.
The blue glass in the 100's of window makes the place full of colour and light.

Sandy was here 29 years ago and has wanted me to experience it for myself ever since and what an experience it is.

Through out the day we hear a call to pray several more times. It is a haunting sound, a style of singing and bellowing, the echoing of which is coming from the 3000 ish conical towers that are at the Mosques in Istanbul. It wafts over the entire city the sound that makes you know we are in a Muslim country, Turkey was truly an exotic and memorable place to visit.