Holidays in Turkey and Thailand

Hello Hello!
Well, I made it back Thursday morning from my 2 weeks in Thailand via Turkey, and it was a lot of fun! I flew from Dushanbe to Istanbul, where I had about a 13 hour layover, so I was able to take the metro downtown to Sultahnament square with a friend who was in transit back to the states. It was rather cold in Istanbul, colder than Dushanbe, and was a bit rainy. It actually started snowing a bit when I was waiting to catch the metro back to the airport. My friend got off a stop before me to go to her hotel, and so I headed off to see the sites on my own. The neat thing about Sultahnament square is that there are several really cool sites to see all within walking distance from each other. So, I walked over to the Haggia Sofia (the oldest church in Christendome) first... here are a few of the inside and out.. The Hagia is closed on Mondays (which was the day that I was passing through headed for Thailand, but I was able to make it down there on my way back through:)













Right as I was about to walk over toward the Blue Mosque, the call to prayer went out, which meant that the mosque would be closed for an hour, so I just started walking towards it to take some photos when this random guy decided to be my tour guide... long story short, he showed me around, taught me how to play batgammon while trying turkish apple tea, then there were several refusals on my part to hold his arm for me to get rid of him... but I was sure thankful the Lord made him depart from me! Here are the pics from the blue mosque and other things I saw on my day in Istanbul...