Istanbul- Day 2

I sat bolt upright, blinked and tried to look around the pitch black room. What time was it? How long had I been asleep? Had I slept too long? Suddenly, a voice pierced the darkness, loud and melodic (in a mournful kind of way), followed by a second, and another and another. It was the voices of the mullahs of the nearby mosques doing the call to prayer. I turned on my light and looked at my alarm clock-- 4:37 a.m. Are you kidding me? I was so tired but the call to prayer continued on. I started wondering if he was doing some kind of a sermon (I don't think the call to prayers in Dubai are this long! Really!) but he kept 'singing' so I knew it couldn't be a sermon. Funny how the call to prayer sounds so different in different countries. In Dubai, I'm assuming because of the environmental noise (construction, planes, etc.), I never hear the morning call to prayer unless I happen to be awake and laying in bed; then I'll hear 1 mullah after another start their calls-- it's actually kind of neat to hear the faint voices call out over the quiet-- it signifies the start of the day (at least to me)-- a kind of 'wake up and get going' call for me. In Bahrain, I don't remember hearing anything and in Jordan they were loud enough to partially wake up but it still seemed to be in the distance somewhere. This was like the speakers were right in my room. Of course, the Blue Mosque was directly behind my hotel so that probably made it seem even louder.

I managed to fall back asleep and work up at 7:30-- 10 hours of sleep-- fabulous! I don't remember the last time I slept that long. I went to breakfast on the hotel's rooftop restaurant- what a breath takingview! I could see the massive structures of the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya looming over the old homes in Sultanahmet. As I looked at the Blue Mosque, I noticed the Egyptian obelisk in front of the Blue Mosque. This is when I realized I was in the heart of the action (historically speaking).

After breakfast, I grabbed my gear and went to see what used to be the Hippodrome. Major events are no longer held there as there's nothing left, but it's still a popular are having been turned in to a park. I started by visiting the obelisk; it's a massive structure and has a base that's made out of marble and has Egyptian reliefs carved in it. It is believed to have been made in 1500 BC and the base was believed to have been made in the 4th centure AD. It was wild to see this almost perfectly preserved Egyptian marker in the heart of old Constantinople. Next to the obelisk was the Serpentine Column or what was left of it as the serpents' heads were lost some time ago. This particular column dates back to 479 BC. The last column at this particular end of the Hippodrome area was the Column of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, a column that was restored in the 10th century AD.

From there, I walked back across to the north end of the square (close to Aya Sofya) and saw the covered fountain which was built to commemorate Kaiser Wilhem II's visit to Istanbul in 1898. I then crossed the street, bought a cheap scarf and headed to the Blue Mosque.