All of today's pictures of from St. Sophia in Istanbul and were taken Tuesday, April 14.

For the uninitiated and those who didn't watch the wall-to-wall coverage of Obama's trip to Hagia Sophia when he visited Turkey, here's just a little info. The original church on the site was built back in the 4th century but it burned. The current structure is much newer - from the 6th Century! Amazing.

There are some impressive mosaics but I think the most amazing thing is just the sheer size. The dome is 102 feet across and 182 feet high. Lots more detail is available online for diehards who want to read.


It was the seat of the Orthodox church until 1453 when the Turks conquered Constantinople and turned the church into a mosque. All sorts of modifications and renovations took place.

Then in the 20th Century, Ataturk declared that it should be a museum. Carpets were removed (which I suspect are probably for sale somewhere in Istanbul) and the plaster that had been put over the amazing mosaics was removed.

Since I'm not going to fill all this space with information on Hagia Sophia, I may as well mention some of the many people who approached us.

I know I've mentioned the carpet guys, but I can't get over it. One guy directed us to the
entrance to the Blue Mosque (we never asked for any help), then showed us the plastic bags for our shoes, and told us he would meet us when we came out, which he did. The whole time, I told him I wasn't buying carpet.


Another guy asked us where we were going when we were looking at a map, and Kim told him the Hippodrome. He walked us there. Again I told him I wasn't buying carpet, but he never left, waiting while Kim stopped to take pictures.

As we walked down the street, a guy with 5-6 boxes of perfume approached. When we wold him we weren't interested, he told us he had others and asked Kim what she liked. We went into a pharmacy just to lose the guy. He was there when we came out!

In a similar vein, when we came out of the Basilica Cistern (pictures tomorrow) someone there told us that because we had been underground we were turned around. He offered to help us find our way. We declined.



Anytime we walked past a restaurant we were invited to come in or just to take a look at the menu.


When we were standing in the line outside Hagia Sophia, guys were constantly working the line, telling us that if we bought a guidebook from them, they could get our tickets for us and we would not have to wait in line. I never saw anyone take them up on their offer, so I don't even know whether they could so it or not.



Now, just random thoughts to fill the space:


Why can't the passport checks be done together?
I know the answer - because each country would not want to conduct them in the other's country. It's just annoying to fall back asleep at 3 a.m. only to be wakened 30 minutes later.





It's really disconcerting to give your passport to someone in the middle of the night and then have them walk away with it, as well as a pile of others. I knew he was an officer but he with the stack he had, couldn't he lose one? We were a long way from a US Embassy. I regretted that I left the photocopies of the passports back in Athens.




"Baggage check" was a bit of a joke. Most of the 4 times (one on each side, each way) they just looked in our cabin to see our bags - never opened them. One time a guy actually looked and pulled out some Turkish coffee. Practical - it's known the smell of coffee masks drug odors. He held it to his nose and smelled! Unless he has a basset hound's nose, there's no way he would have been able to tell if there was anything in there.


Kim did a lot better in learning simple Turkish phrases (like thank you) than I did. She would ask people how to say things. They loved it when she used her few words. I guess I just didn't work hard enough at it.

This is not the most skillful pan/tilt ever, and you can't really see a whole lot. The whole point was my attempt to show the size of the place.