The Beauty Within

We had a busy day today even though we ended up not making it to either of the mosques. Josh found time in the evening to take some great pictures of them, though, and we plan on seeing them and the Grand Bazaar tomorrow. We did, however, make it to the beautiful Topkapi Palace, the main palace for the Ottoman Empire for almost four centuries. The expanse of the palace was incredible and was only rivaled by the beautiful tile-work and gilded calligraphy adorning the many buildings. Maya handled the palace fairly well though she fell dead asleep about half-way through. Thankfully one of the scarves I had packed to use as a head covering in the mosques saved the day and I was able to use it as a sling to support her while we walked around. I had used a sling religiously to carry her around on trips when she was smaller and it proved once again to be one of the best inventions ever created by woman.

After the palace, we went to the incredible Basilica Cistern, a breathtaking columned water reservoir located underground adjacent to Hagia Sophia. Maya especially loved the huge fish that were swimming around in the water and Josh was in pure heaven with all the photo opportunities. It's amazing that something so simple as columns and two feet of water can be as dazzling as the cistern is, but it will definitely be one of the highlights of the trip.

We finished the day off with a belly dancing show. It, of course, was the canned tourist trap type place but Maya was mesmerized. I looked over quite a few times to see her completely in a trance watching the dancers. Even though the food wasn't the best and some of the acts had more cheese than France, the whole experience was a lot of fun and well worth the price. Now I just need to get Maya to stop hiking up her shirt so she can be a belly dancer.