Across the Strait

The Palladium Mall is a twenty-minute walk from our apartment and has six floors.

The Primary School English Department workroom.

From the workroom, you can walk out onto a balcony and see the amphitheater built to stage school plays. However, five years after its construction, it has yet to be used. Sad. Ben and I agree that it should either be renovated or turned into walls of hanging gardens.

The entrance to the Istanbul Modern.

Patrick telling Denis his fortune from his coffee grounds at the Istanbul Modern Cafe'.

Smoking Nargile, drinking Banana Tea, and eating Donors. You know, teacher stuff.

View of the Blue Mosque from its courtyard. We're taking a tour of it tomorrow.

The kids dressed as kings will be getting circumcised today. They're so excited to 'become men' and have no idea what's in store for them this evening.

Eating at the historic Sultanahmet Koftecisi restaurant (est. 1920).

We finished just as the last prayer of the day was about to be called. The line to get in was at least a block long.

A special line of stalls celebrating Ramadan were erected at the site of the Hippodrome . They had small rides for kids and reminded me of midway at the State Fair.

Picnic tables crammed with people fill the site of what was once the Hippodrome. This was taken during the last prayer of the day. The sun has set and everyone can stuff their faces!

Eating mussels. This kid was a pro. For one Lira (.56 cents), you can get four small mussels, two medium-size mussels, or one really large mussel.

You can't get your passports photos at Walgreens in Istanbul. The photo center we went to goes all-out. They even Photoshop out your ugly places (which may or may not be legal on passport photos). We each got 24 photos for a total of 70 Lira.

A panorama of the Great Horn (Haghia Sophia and Blue Mosque are visible) from the Istanbul Modern Cafe'.