Hey guys!
So you´ll have to forgive me, since I am at an Internet cafe and the keyboard is a little different than in the states...
Today was really busy! Jet lag + getting up early = a lot of unhappy campers, but they had coffee downstairs so I was good to go. They took us to the Old City, aka the part that used to be Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empireş until the Roman Empire fell and was then then the capital of the Ottoman Empire. We went to two mosques today. One, the Hagia Sofia, was originally a church in the sixth century but was made into a mosque when the Turks took over. The other one, the Blue Mosque, is absolutely breathtaking. As the name would suggest, the inside was filled with blue tiles that cost an insane amount of money. We had to take off our shoes, and the girls had to cover their shoulders and legs. There were a lot of people inside doing their prayers. Interestingly, this mosque was viewed as a house of God, where Jews, Christians, and Muslims were invited to pray. Pretty cool stuff. We also saw an old palace where the sultans and their nobles used to live. Inside, they had all kinds of old artifacts from various sultans and religious figures. They had a lot of things from Muhammad´s tomb. However, the coolest part was seeing John the Baptists arm and hand that were cut off by Herod, and even the top of his skull was there. They had part of the bronze covering moved away from John the Baptists arm, and you could see the bones and stuff. Pretty cool. They even had a bowl that allegedly belonged to Abraham and a staff that belonged to Moses. And to think that we in the States consider a tissue that George Washington may or may not have sneezed on to be a historical artifact.
The food is better than I thought...lots of bread, beans, potatos, fruit, and weird meat stuff. And lots and lots and lots of kebabs! Fortunately they have coke, coke light, etc. The tap water is not safe to drink, but we just buy water bottles for brushing our teeth and drinking.
Well I must go now...it is almost dinner time here in Turkey! Hope things are going well in the States!
Arleta
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Wow - what a way to start your trip (1st class)! Having never been to Europe, I cannot even imagine seeing buildings, streets, etc that are so many centuries old. That is such a wonderful experience. I hope you are taking lots of pictures since I really don't see Bobby and me touring Turkey any time soon ... Hey - we did go see Angels & Demons last weekend. I thought about you going to Rome in a few weeks and actually seeing those sites. I'm so jealous! Take care and keep writing.
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