Darrell near Hagia Sophia

We were impressed by the immensity and the design of the structure, both unparalleled at the time it was built. We could also see some of the rich materials that had been used in its construction, the gold mosaics and monolithic columns of green and white marble and purple porphyry. Overall, though, we were disappointed at the building’s poor condition. It was dark, damp, and dirty, with few signs of any attempt at restoration . (In fact, it was so dark and dirty that none of our photos were any good. Those shown here are more recent ones.)

Restored interior of Hagia Sofia

Balcony & arches

Dome with Arabic decorations

Mosaic of Blessed Virgin

Old mosaics in ceiling

It was only mid-afternoon when we left Hagia Sophia, so we decided to walk back toward our hotel and do some sightseeing along the way. When we came to the Galata Bridge (which crosses the Golden Horn from Eminönü in the old city to Galata in the newer section), we noticed that there was an informal market off to right, so we browsed through that. We could see the Galata Tower (an old fire-watch tower) across the bridge and decided to walk over there and climb to the top for the view. It was a great view, but we wore ourselves out, and it was still several more blocks to our hotel. The walk was very interesting, though.

Approaching Gallata Bridge

Informal market next to Gallata Bridge

Small boats near Gallata Bridge

Streetcar heading for Taksim

Hearse making a pick-up

We managed to rest for a short time before we had to get ready for dinner. Then we met the Armstrongs in the lobby at 18:00. They had hired a dolmus to drive us to the village up the Bosphorus with “the famous seafood restaurant.” Unfortunately, we remember the name of neither the restaurant nor the village. But we must have driven a full hour to get there. The weather had suddenly turned bad, and the rain poured down the entire way, so we couldn’t see a thing outside the car.

It was already dark when we got to the restaurant, and there were almost no lights, so we couldn’t see anything there, either. The driver dropped us off, then waited in the car to take us back. He was getting a total $10 for the round trip, and spent more than four hours with us. With the gas and wear and tear on the car, he certainly wasn’t getting rich on the deal.

The staff at the restaurant, all wearing tuxedos, greeted us profusely. We never had less than three waiters at our table. It took us a few minutes to realize that we were the only customers there. It took us a couple more minutes to discover that our menu was in Turkish and that no one at the restaurant spoke English (or German, Italian, or Spanish, languages in which I could at least get by). They finally rounded up an older waiter who professed to know some French. Well, he knew about as much as we did, which wasn’t much. I actually could order various meats in French, but when it came to seafood, I couldn’t go much beyond poissons, and that just didn’t cut it in a seafood restaurant.

We ended up ordering entirely in sign language, pretty much leaving it up to the waiters to decide what we should have. They chose well, and the meal was magnificent. We had an excellent local white wine, multiple hors d’oeuvres (all seafood), swordfish steaks, a delicious dessert, and Turkish coffee. The total bill for the four us, after adding a generous tip, was less than $20.

One of the waiters went out in the rain and fetched our driver. It was another hour’s drive back through the pouring rain, but we were all pretty mellow and didn’t mind. It was after 22:00 when we got back to our hotel.

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