Turkey, day six

I went to Asia this afternoon. What did you do?

That's right, the OTHER SIDE of the Bosporus!

Before that exciting boat journey, however, we saw two of my favorite things of this trip so far. First up, Chora Church (which also has a lot of other names). This church turned mosque turned museum has some of the most fabulous (and well-preserved) Byzantine mosaics and frescoes in the world. And since it's a pretty bare-bones museum--there are none of my favorite informational panels--it was a fun name-that-iconography quiz game! But actually, since the whole church is full of art and its all in its original location, I wouldn't like it any other way. Time capsule!

I think this one should not be on the quiz.

After this excursion we went over to the Spice Bazaar (Egyptian Bazaar), because clearly yesterday did not include enough bazaar-ing. I enjoyed my Spice Bazaar experience much better than my Grand Bazaar experience, because the Spice Bazaar is smaller and beautiful and smells delicious. Also, there's no need to worry about which shop to enter, because essentially all of them sell spices (and we weren't buying anything, anyway).

I always want to cook with the spices have the best colors. In this case that would be all of them.

After this ramble through the bazaar, we hopped on a boat to the other half of Istanbul. There is an underground tunnel in progress, but right now the only ways to cross the Bosporus are by one of two bridges or by boat--massive tunnel-building projects are expensive. Infrastructure has improved dramatically over the last forty years, though. When my family lived here in the 60s, the only option was a car ferry.  

To celebrate our arrival in Asia, we bought a bunch of grocery store shopping bags (as you can see in the first picture, living the high life). Then to actually celebrate, we had tea. As you can see, the sun was showing its face for the first time in days. It has my permission to stick around.

Bright green grated pistachios should be a required topping for all things.