Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Night on the Town

The New Mosque


The days are getting warmer...which is sending more people out late at night. We followed their lead and jumped on the bus last night and headed to the European side to Taksim Square.
After a food stop we were off to Eminonou and the New Mosque (hundreds of years old and still called "new"). We arrived in time for the last prayers of the day at 10:30pm. Fireworks were being shot off at Sultanahmet so we went up the hill and sat in front of the Blue Mosque for awhile after the crowds had left. We had the place to ourselves with the exception of a few gypsy families in the park.
We had missed the last ferry to Kadikoy, so we opted for the ferry to Uskudar. It put us back in Asia and north of where we wanted to be. We arrived in Kadikoy well after midnight and took a Dolmus home.
The dolmus driver wanted me to sit with him and we talked in very bad (my part) Turkish. Before long the whole bus was laughing and talking to us. The driver didn't want us to get off so he slowed down to 5mph the last two miles. As they sped away they were waving and yelling goodbyes through the windows. We walked the last mile to home and got to bed later than I want to admit.

Downtown Istanbul Last Night

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is so amazing to me how friendly the people of Turkey are! What a wonderful place to live!

JF

Anonymous said...

Greetings from San Diego, sounds like everything is going well. Wish you guys the best!!

Living, Traveling, and Wandering on the Far Side of the World

Living, Traveling, and Wandering on the Far Side of the World