Today was a full day in Istanbul. We woke up at 8:30 and got our complimentary Turkish breakfast which consisted of bread, jam, cheese, cucumbers, tomato, a hard boiled egg, and olives. With coffee and tea of course.

Next we checked out of the hostel, but put our luggage in the luggage locker. Then it was off to see The Basilica Cistern, which is an underground water reservoir that was sealed for a long time, but was discovered in recent history. We ran into my friend Snigdha and her sister in the cistern which was awesome.

The Grand Bizarre was next on our venture and it was huge! So many things to buy — and the prices showed they were used to dumb tourists. We will go back there when we come back to Istanbul at the end of our trip for sure.

Then we went to the Süleymaniye Mosque and walked around. On the grounds of the mosque we got the most amazing view of the city overlooking the Bosphorus river. For lunch, we grabbed a doner (or sandwich) from a street vender. The dollar goes pretty far here so lunch was about $4.50 for a sandwich and yogurt drink.

We then walked to the grave of the mosque’s architect and found an amazing little cafe with a terrace and another wonderful view of the city. I had some ginger tea there which was very very bitter, but good in its own way.