Continued from Istanbul Day 5 Part 2.

This morning was not the greatest, but it was worth it for the fun last night though. Lots of water and a shower later, we finally made it out of the hotel at around 2 in the afternoon. Haven’t even had lunch yet, so we were hungry.

The weather is overcast. The forecast says that it’s supposed to be really cold, so we put on all the layers that we had. Then we started walking, and it’s pretty hot. What’s up with these unreliable Turkish weather reports.

The serpent column in front of the Blue Mosque. I am always just too drawn to the Blue Mosque to take a photo of this.

Must get some fresh squeezed OJ. Must rehydrate.

Hello lovely.

Candy. Different flavors of thick liquid candy gets wrapped around a stick. The kid in the photo is holding a finished product.

Found a seat on the tram. This is good. All I want to do is lay down and sleep…so tired and hungover. But, I am in Istanbul, I couldn’t possibly lay in bed all day and nap. Must go out and see the city, even if it’s just something simple.

New Mosque.

Pigeons look so much more graceful in the air.

Hungry, giant chunk of meat, sold.

Tiny stairs.

Must hydrate. Dual use cap.

This kebab place was cool. You can specify the amount of meat that you want in your kebab sandwich. SO really loved this place because it tasted the closest to German version of kebab.

Pigeons.

Found the pigeons. Thanks Rick Steves for letting me know where to find the pigeons!

I found the pigeons, so I know this is the New Mosque because its next to the pigeons. It’s pretty nice, but ain’t not Blue Mosque.

Galata tower on the other side of the Golden Horn.

I noticed that the people in this area look different from the other parts of Istanbul that we’ve been to. I noticed that a lot of women here wear head scarfs, and they looked a little different from most of the population in Istanbul. These women were all a little shorter and stockier. They looked more Baltic to me. That’s odd because I couldn’t even tell you what Baltic people look like, but that’s the first word that came to my mind. I think these may be the Kurdish people? Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

Spice Market. I am excited about all the colorful spices that I’ll see.

Oh yeah! All Night Long.

All the spice shops sell basically the same spices and teas, but the same spices priced differently. Obviously, the shops closer to the entrance charge a higher rate.

Turkish Delight. Why haven’t I seen a woman wear a shirt that says Turkish delight on it yet?

All, Night, Long.

I had no idea this is what jasmine looks like.

Spice Market was fun. Everything is just so colorful and vibrant! It wasn’t nearly as big as Grand Bazaar so we were in and out of there in less than 30 minutes.

These Seat cars are kind of neat.

New Mosque. This is the business end, if you will.

All the mini domes of Spice Market.

In the area next to Spice Market, there’s a plant and pet market. I know, because I saw the pigeons, and the plant and pet market is not too far from the pigeons.

Seeds.

Leeches…They were pretty disgusting swimming around in there. I hope these are food for some type of pets and not as actual pets…

Dog food, but presented like spices.

How cute. Puppy mill or not, still cute.

Oh…no…pigeons here at the pet market too. Wait…the pet market was supposed to be next to the pigeons. If there are pigeons here, and the pet market is next to the pigeons….what does that mean…?

So sleepy and lazy, so I’ll just look at you.

A little kid got my attention while I was walking around and pointed out these birds with the puffed up chest to me.

Awesome!! I LOVED the colors on this colorful bird. I’d rather have this than a peacock.

Galata tower, yet again. We finished with the pet/plant market, and we sat down in the plaza in front of New Mosque. You know, the mosque next to the pigeons. We debated on what we were going to do for the rest of the day. It was almost 4PM. We could try to go visit a museum, or we could go home. While we were deciding, the calls for prayer came blasting on the PA system from New Mosque. The guy who sang the prayers really sang. He was really proud of his voice and it sounded like he was singing opera instead of chanting a prayer. Very cool experience. SO and I both agreed that this guy was the best out of all the prayers that we’ve heard in Istanbul.

After the wonderful prayer, we decided to just get back on the tram and go back to our hotel to chill out. We were both still hungover, so no reason to make life harder while on vacation.

This lady actually bought a tree from the plant market.

Our tram took less than 10 minutes to get us from Spice Market to the stop for our hotel. When we exited our tram, we looked up and saw the ominous sky, and the wind had picked up significantly. The weather took a 180 degree turn for the worse during the 10 minute tram ride. It’s about to rain, and probably rain hard any minute now. We were really glad that we decided to head back to hotel instead of more sightseeing.

About to pour, but of course, another photo of Blue Mosque. I call this one, Blue Mosque Before Storm.

There are a row of small quaint restaurants next to our hotel that I’ve been meaning to take a photo of. What better time to take the photo than right before it’s about to pour rain.

I can’t believe that building isn’t condemned.

We reached our hotel, and started hearing thunder. Then it started to rain, and then it started to pour. You can see the water pouring down from the rain gutter and the side of the red building starting to get wet from the rain.

We made such an awesome decision to come back to our hotel! It was raining so hard outside, and the weather got really cold. A front had blown in, and we are in the comfort of our hotel, me blogging and SO watching TV. This is the life.

Ordered some pizza since it’s still raining hard outside. I did, however, run out to get us some beers. The corner grocery store was closed since it’s Sunday evening, so I walked into a restaurant and I just bought the beers and took them back to the hotel. Nice. Couldn’t do that in Austin.

This pizza place had all their specialty pizzas named after American cities. Out of all of their specialty pizzas, I only had two viable choices. They had Houston Pizza and Dallas Pizza, unfortunately no Austin. Of course, I had to get a Texas pizza, so Dallas Pizza it was! It was good, hit the spot, and best of all, we were completely dry and comfortable in the hotel room as it stormed outside.

To be continued at Istanbul Day 7 Part 1.