Istanbul, Turkey - Day 2
This was our last full day in Turkey. Today was purely site seeing and experiencing Istanbul.
We started the morning walking through Taksim Square - a pedestrian park/market/street - down to the Galata tower. On the way we passed several Christian churches, one was a beautiful Franciscan church open to the public (on a side note Craig found the most beautiful Starbucks ever - but we are sticking to Turkish coffee for now).
The Galata tower was built in 1348 during the height of the Ottoman period in Constantinople. It has 8 floors and offers fabulous views of the city, the Golden Horn (Bay) and the Bosphorus. “Galata Kulesa” in Turkish, also called Christea Turris (tower of Christ in Latin).
From there we went to a small neighborhood that our guide said was a good example of an area she enjoys, non “touristy”. We saw the Bulgarian church of St Stephen. Lovely streets with murals and little neighborhood shops. We watched a local, who lives 3 floors above the neighborhood market, lower a basket with money to the grocer below, the grocer filled a basket with bread, and the gentleman just pulled it up the basket to his 3rd floor window. We had a Turkish coffee on the street. And once again experienced the awesome hospitality from local people.
We spent the afternoon at the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar. Ate too much and had wonderful tea multiple times!
Tonight our group had a final long dinner together and prayers of thanksgiving for each other, the success of the project to get photos and video of so many biblical sites, and for such amazing weather and sunlight every single day of the trip.
Getting packed for flight tomorrow - our tired dirty clothes have dust from 1700 BC all the way to 21st century AD!!
Our required PCR test results are back for both of us... Looks like we get to fly home!
