Yerebatan Sarnici

Last weekend, Mu came to visit. His flight landed on Friday and we headed to Kumkapi to eat fish while being serenaded by small bands who move from table to table accepting requests. Of course you are welcome to sing (as most - especially those who have already downed significant quantities of raki- are more than willing to do) and dance. Some of the women who get up to dance are fairly good at "dans oriental" (bellydancing)... The night we visited, it was a random diner who was really good. She was skinny and wearing rather frumpy clothing, but she actually got up on a table to dance. She was fabulous - a great deal better than the busty lady actually clad in a belly dance costume.

On the Saturday, we actually headed to Sultan Ahmet for sightseeing.
These two pictures are also not mine - I left my camera in a taxi coming back from Polonozköi. Sigh! And after getting it fixed in Erbil just before coming to Turkey. They are of the Basilica Cistern or Yerebatan Sarnici. There was a stiff entrance charge and it wasn't really a highlight in the guidebook, but it was an impressive place. Originally storing all the water for Istanbul's consumption, now it is an eerie atmospheric place to have tea.
Haunting instrumental music echoes off the walls, water drips from the ceiling arches and you can explore the Cistern on walkways which take you to the two Medusa heads (one sideways, one upside down) which support huge columns. While there is a history of Medusa written on placards on the walkway, there is not reason given for why the heads were placed there or why they were so oriented.

After the Cistern, we didn't really do so much as there was a football match on that evening - Mu's team (Galata Saray?) was playing, so after seafood dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Bosphorus, we settled into cushions on the floor of a pub with big screens mounted on the wall for all the many football fans of Istanbul.