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Our adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
  
Second day of exporing. We took the bus down to the ferry terminal and from there walked up the hill to first visit the Hagia Spohia. This mosque is probably the oldest in Istanbul and is famed for its mosaics which line most of the interior. The building is quite magnificant with many columns and intricate column heads which have been carefully restored in many cases. There is an incredible amount of very expensive restoration work going on and Joan
and I remember that when we came here three years ago they had scaffolding everywhere then.
From the Hagia Sophia you can walk across the park to the the Blue Mosque. This is a mosque which is in daily use for prayer and when we first arrived we could not go in because of this and had to walk around the bazaar which is situated in the old stable areas. Joan and I found and bought a very nice bed throw to go in our new bedroom, when it eventually gets finished. The interior of the Blue Mosque lives up to its name with acres of blue carpet, acres of blue mosaics all over the walls and domes and some stunning windows.
We lunched in this area and then went further uphill to the grand bazaar. A must for every tourist really but buying is with extreme caution as most things are overpriced and tourist attractive. We were all invited in to a carpet shop, or should I say dragged in, where we were given apple tea, very nice, and treated to the full sales speech about carpets. They start off with the wool carpets, progress to the wool silk mix and finally to the all silk hand made carpets. We were shown a 1 x 2 meter silk carpet for the bargain price of £4,750.00 shipped to your home. Must have been a joke, but how many fall for these jokes.
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