good talk

From Canakkale back up to Istanbul, always a great place to visit, there's a bridge where you can walk from Europe to Asia.  Stayed in the Sultanahmet, as always, as most of the sights are nearby.  Formerly Constantinople, it became Istanbul when it was taken by Ottoman Sultan, Mehmet the Conqueror in 1453.  The Hagia Sofia, built in the 6th Century by Byzantine Emperor, Justinian 1, was for a thou years the largest building in the world.  It became a mosque but is now a museum, and very fabulous.  The Blue Mosque, so called for its interior, is the only mosque in Islam to have 6 minarets, there's iron bars running across its heights in case of earthquakes, it too, is fabulous.  To the Topkapi Palace, of the Ottoman Sultans, and there is so much to see, fabulous jewels, fab everything, they even have a hand of John the Baptist. To the Archeology Museums, I've seen the Basilica Cistern already thrice.  Leaving the Sultanahmet, took the tram to the Dolmabahce Palace, where I had never been, built in 1856 by Sultan Abdulmecid 1 as a more modern residence than Topkapi, but still as fabulous, you can only go around on a guided-tour, no wandering about by yourself which I always prefer.  It has within 285 rooms and 35 tons of gold.  There's a lot more tourists than before to Istanbul due to the growing world mania for travel, everybody wants to go places and see and do things.