Istanbul. Turkey. Days 112-113

Days 112-113:

In the maelstrom!! Hidden shop. Grand Bazaar

On Friday, we woke up really late, around midday, but this wasn't a surprise after the previous day party. After a breakfast consisting in nutella and olives, we went to the historic centre to visit the sinister water deposit (Basilica Cistern), 1.400 there and still impressive. We also tried to visit Topkapi Palace, but it was closed so we left it for the next day. And, finally, the Grand Bazaar! Yes, some of us were waiting anxiously for this moment … Time to walk around, go mad with all the surrounding objects, haggle a little bit… It’s impossible to cheat those Turkish vendors, although Monroy tried it hard! 

Later, again in the hostel, we played poker in our room while drinking some beers. Finally we didn’t go out, but we promised Pacas to do it the next day, and do it seriously. This man needs night-action.

The Blue Mosque from Haghia Sophia

On Saturday morning, we woke up early and went to Topkapi Palace, where we spent a pair of hours under a bothering rain. In the place we saw some interesting stuff, many valuable treasury from Sultans' times, and outstanding artifacts like The Staff of Moses (yeah, with this thing he divided the Red Sea's water… ), and Prophet Muhammad’s things like his footprint, sword or bow. The Palace is full of History, like the city itself! 

In one of the hundreds of mosques in Istanbul

After that, we walked far to the Mosques heading west, the University, aqueduct… and of course: The Grand Bazaar again! Another round of freaky shopping. Absolute devastation of our wallets.In our way back to the hostel, we stopped at famous Galata Bridge to have dinner in a seafood restaurant. Later we went out to a few different clubs (and some prostitute nightclubs by mistake), with commercial Arabic music. Our night ended in the same rock-club than Friday, and we came back to the hostel at 6 AM, just in time to listen the Islamic pray. Monroy still wanted more party and take a taxi to the other side of the city (he had heard about interesting things there), but we convinced him to calm down and go to sleep. Sgt. Tellez had problems finding  the hostel, and he got lost in the city for a few hours, although luckily he finally arrived. How? Nobody knows!