With a long day of sightseeing ahead, we got up quite late, since the museums don’t open till 9 am. After eating breakfast, we headed toward town looking for a taxi. We got one after about ten minutes of walking and made quite a speedy trip to Sultanahmet.

The taxi driver dropped us off just a short walk from the entrance. Looking like a regular tourist with walking shoes, a backpack and rather unusually these days, a DSLR we were of course singled out by the first guy offering a tour. Even though local guides have great stories that you can’t find in any guidebooks, we decided that we could manage looking around by ourselves.

Stepping into the main hall, one has to marvel this magnificent building. Standing there and looking at the domes, I started thinking about villagers arriving here three-four hundred years ago. They had seldom seen anything so big so it must have been absolutely awesome. We spent the following two hours wandering and wondering. Here is our photographic recap. If you want more historical facts, try the Hagia Sophia Museum site.