On Saturdays during the semester James taught English to some of the university faculty. He got to know an Islamic Studies professor pretty well. We asked him to take us to a mosque and explain some things to us. I know we are allowed to go in (even though we have kids, don't wear headscarves, aren't Muslim, etc....but feel kind of lame just walking in on our own.
He took us the next day. I was expecting to visit 1 mosque and figured we would be an hour tops.....yea right. I should have known better.
Here we are in front of the thing that shows you the direction pointing to Mecca (can't remember the name).
A man sitting and reading the Koran
TJ and the girls played underneath the pulpit...I kept freaking out that they were being to irreverent, but everyone kept reassuring me they were fine.
A picture of one of the mosques we visited.
James with the professor, Mevlut.
Sofia thought she wanted to read the Koran as well.
An inside picture of the most modern mosque. It was pretty...lots different than the old ones. There was lots of ceramic tile. They have that all over Istanbul, but it was my first time seeing the ceramic here.
After the mosques he took us up to a ski jump that overlooks the city.
After that he took us to a historical site. It used to be a rich person's home, but now it's a restaurant. Naturally we had to eat dinner. The kids made it through, but spent the last 15 minutes climbing under/around/through the tables. Luckily there was no one else around.
3 mosques, a ski jump, a cafe for salep (since we don't drink tea), and a tour of the home plus dinner later we made it home.
It was nice, but very long. 5 hours long to be exact!
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