People seemed more hospitable here; I got free tea in the hotel, a map and an introduction on what to see in the city, which made it a lot easier. Turkey is quite a change when coming from Europe. It takes a while until you get used to the regular chants from the minarets. It’s quite entertaining at first because for someone who doesn’t understand the language, singers from different mosques seem to “compete” with each other.
In the morning I went to see several mosques where you have to take off your shoes to enter and women are given long skirts to wear. The great bazaar was entertaining although they sell almost exclusively to tourists as it seemed; it’s probably far off from a “real” bazaar. After walking for hours around the city, late in the afternoon I went to visit the old palace. It was interesting to see but I think I missed the best part because it was late and they had already closed the living quarters for the day. I left the palace just as it was about to close and walked through the park between the two big mosques back to the hotel. Going out to eat was something new as well. Every waiter in a restaurant wanted to strike up a conversation with you an “overtalk” you into eating in his restaurant. They had quite impressive language skills, speaking with almost everybody in their native language. I even got to hear some Swiss German.