Thursday... :-)

Thursday, we slept in until around 9... The schedule for the day was to go to The Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofya; St. Sophia..), the Blue Mosque, and the Basilica Cistern.  We took the ferry over from the Uskudar district of Istanbul on the Asian side (where our flat was), and then took the tram to the Sultan Ahmet district (on the European side, where the Blue Mosque/ Hagia Sofia, etc is) and got off by the underground cistern.   We walked to the Hagia Sophia first, and bought museum entrance cards.. :-)  It was hard to actually believe that I was standing in front of the Hagia Sophia.... unbelievable.

This is the view from the street of the Hagia Sophia... 

And a close-up... :-)  

And me in front of... :-)

This is part of Theodosius's original Hagia Sophia... it was rebuilt later, and that's the Hagia Sophia we now know....

Explanation of Theodosius's Aya Sofya...

Melis in front of one of the Aya Sofya doors...

Aunt Sureyya (Sureyya Tesa, in Turkish :-) in front of an old column belonging to the original Aya Sofya...

The Emperor's door in the Hagia Sophia into the actual Nave...

Explanation.....

Door to the Nave...

Close-up of the mosaic over the door to the Nave - there were about three of these from the Narthex into the Nave...

The Narthex of the Hagia Sophia.... wow.... look especially at the floors...

Close-up of the ceiling of the Narthex... 

The fireplace-ish thing in the Narthex...

Close-up of the entrance door to the Nave of the Aya Sofya :-)

Another close up of the door... thought all you GK friends would love this example of the detail that Dr. G was talking about during the Medieval period... :-)

Front altar of the Aya Sofya... 

Ok guys, will finish this tomorrow... so tired, and my eyes are starting to hurt from a combo of computer screen and dark room... :-)  The Aya Sofya was REALLY amazing... but I will have to finish describing later... lol.... Love you all! :-)

 ~Bekah