Still in Istanbul and today I visited the Blue Mosque. I think that’s the first time I’ve been inside a Mosque. There are just four huge columns inside holding up all the domes. I noticed the entire building is lined up with Mecca. Then I went underground to Basilica Cistern, which is come kind of underground water reservoir, built 1500 years old. It was a challenge to take photos in the near darkness though! I also walked through the Grand Bazaar which was pretty crazy with thousands of small shops.
I found a store that sells iPods, but they were really overpriced (almost double their value). They seem to be pretty rare here. However, there are some counterfeit audio players with Sony and iPod labels on them. You can tell they aren’t something Sony or Apple would make, but they look cheaply made (LCD doesn’t line up, slow boot time, bad software). But good price, $42 or so for these “MP4 Players” but I’m not sure I want one of those. Maybe Istanbul isn’t really known for the best place to buy electronics.
Misc: I’m sleeping in a room with 12 other people, I think that’s a record for this trip so far. Last night everyone was either very quiet or I was in comatose as a result of the previous night. An observation, stray cats are everywhere around this city and in Turkey. A few stray dogs too (usually sleeping).