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The ship entered the Bosporus at around 6 am, and we woke up shortly after that and decided to do our walk around the deck early. That way, it would be cool and we would be entertained by the scenery. This channel is between the Black Sea and the sea of Marmara, and it's about 20 miles long and only a few hundred yards wide. Here's a closeup of the beautiful teak deck we walk on. Six times around the boat is half an hour. |
| The sun was just coming up when we started, and all along the Bosporus were these trees and hills and fabulous estates. This ruined castle was near one of the two bridges we (barely) went under. |  |
 | Here are some of the seven hills of Istanbul. The city is breathtaking. Europe is on one side, where we are tied up. Asia is on the other side of the bridge, where all the mosques and minarets and the Grand Bazaar are. |
| Here's the entrance to the Grand Bazaar. The jewelers, who line the whole hall, pay $5,000 to $8,000 a month to have their stands there and you can see why. It's amazing. |  |
 | Here's an interior shot of the Bazaar. We walked through a lot of it, but not all. We bargained for some stuff and got what we wanted, but didn't buy any jewelry. |
| We walked over to the Blue Mosque, and just as we got near it a friendly Kurdish student came up to us and explained that we needed to hurry because it was about to close. Then he showed us where to go in and what to do inside and told us the whole history of the Mosque. |  |
 | His name was Sikram and he said he had been a soldier but now he's a student majoring in sociology. |
| Here's a picture of the inside of the Mosque. It is covered in blue tiles, which is why it's called the Blue Mosque. We had to take our shoes off. The floor was covered in a carpet that echoed the wall design that faced east and was divided into rectangles. Men get to kneel on these rectangles facing east for worship. Women are penned up in a little room with screens in the back on the side. |  |
 | Men wash their faces, ears, arms, hands and then their feet at this row of water spigots on the outside of the mosque before they go in to worship. Women have their own set of spigots somewhere else. |
| This is a German monument donated to the Turks for their support in World War 1, it sits at the end of a garden. |  |
 | It's lined on the inside with gold mosaic tiles that include the seal of the Kaiser and also the Turkish leader at the time. |
| Sikram brought us to his uncle's carpet store to take a look, it was a really elegant shop and we totally fell in love with this magnificent embroidered rug. So we bought it! |  |
 | And here's an Istanbul McDonald's, only a block from the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Castle. |
| Tonight is a casual dress night, which is okay. I had such a great time last night in my ivory dress, at least 5 different people told me I looked incredible in it, including a woman who saw me this morning. I love that dress! We are eating in the Italian restaurant by ourselves, so cool. | |