Minarets

After 3 nights in Cappadocia, we flew to Istanbul.  The night flight was uneventful, though we actually made friends and met them a couple of times during our stay in Istanbul!  Brooks reveled in all of his Emergency Row seat glory, especially after the cramped "Honey I Shrunk The Seats" on our KLM IAD-AMS flight.

I digress...

from left to right: Blue Mosque (6 minarets = fit for a sultan),
Hagia Sofia (2000 yr old church-turned mosque-turned museum), Topkapi Palace

We checked into our hotel and promptly called it a night.  Upon daylight, we feasted our eyes on the skyline of Istanbul, and were struck by the unbelievable number of minarets.

a minaret (loudspeakers at the top to inform
Muslims when they should be praying)

Now, a bit of foreshadowing, if I may:  throughout the day (5 times, to be exact), we admired the Call to Prayer we heard sung in stereo from the mosques across the city.  We spent our first day in Istanbul exploring the culinary side of the city in our walking tour (see post).

After a day of playing tourist, we packed up and relocated to the trusty Holiday Inn Express-City (thank you credit card loyalty points!).  We unpacked, as this was our home for the next 5 nights.  Immediately, we noticed the room was warm hot.  When we went to open the window, we realized that the Turkish safety features forbade more than a 15cm opening - which would hardly allow enough cool air in to lower the room temp.  Well, thanks to Turkish eco-friendliness, the thermostat was rigged to turn off when the window was open.  But, because it was December, the hotel turned off the AC altogether and our only options were either 15cm of crisp December air or central heating.  Essentially, we were in for a rather uncomfortable night - something had to change, as none of the options were ok.  So, hotel maintenance kindly unlocked the safety feature on the window and we fell into a blissful sleep - my favorite way to sleep: snug as a bug with a chilly nose.

That blissful sleep lasted until 6am (sunrise)...when the mosque across the street from our hotel, whose minaret pointed in the direction of our window, blasted the call to prayer.  To give you the full effect, this is the Call to Prayer - imagine this being the bullhorn waking you up on vacation.

Seeing as we had heard the Call to Prayer several times already during this trip, we knew the song didn't last long but seriously, at 6am, it lasts foreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever.  Naturally, Brooks trudged out of bed and closed the window.  Aaaand the safety features re-engaged.  This became our daily ritual - maintenance unlocks window - we close it to optimize shut eye after sunrise - rinse and repeat.  *sigh...way to go Turkey for being so eco-and-safety-conscious.*

Me and my mister in front of the Hagia Sofia