Ayasofya

Spoke to Nadia at 1pm which was lovely. After breakfast I walked down to Ayasofya but wasn't allowed in because I wasn't part of a tour group. I sat in the park for a while reading about the sights in the Sultanahmet then went and had a look at the Basilica Cistern - spectacular underground space, full of soaring columns and water brought in via aquaduct from (apparently) 29km away.

Finally made it inside Ayasofya after our phone call at around 2:30pm. Superlatives are wasted on it. It's like nothing else on Earth and doesn't seem possible - the upper dome really does just float above everything else. Some of the mosaics were quite well preserved, in spite of a few centuries underneath plaster and paint.

The mosque visible from where I'm sitting is the former church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, I think - I'll go and have a look at it in a little while.

How shameful that the Swiss people voted to ban any further minarets in Switzerland. If they were genuinely worried about changed skylines in the cities, they could've opted to limit the height of any new tower, whether minaret or anything else. There are already laws in place for this. The down side of direct democracy - the bigots get to have a say too.

Bought a bread bun and some boerek from a little shop just up the street from here and practised my teshukuer ederim. I guess tomorrow I'll visit the Blue Mosque and perhaps wander up to Topkapi palace. It's nice not trying to see as much as I can - it's times like right now, sitting on the rooftop, that do me the most good.