Istanbul Sightseeing, Part 2

On Thursday Dan and I headed down to the harbor and caught a ferry to get to the Sakıp Sabancı Museum (SSM), where there is currently an exhibit on the centuries-long history of Istanbul. There are Bosphorus cruises galore, most of which last 1.5-2 hours, but you can also catch the ferry cruise that will give you a scenic boat ride and then let you off at one of the stops. There were some stunning views, although it's a bit hard to enjoy them with people mobbing either side of the boat as lovely buildings appear.



The exhibit started out a bit slow (prehistory does not do it for me), but before long we were looking at some really killer objects, such as illuminated manuscripts, amusing drawings of patriarchs, and an icon that looked like a painting but was actually a mosaic composed of countless teeny tiles. Our next stop was Chora Church, which sports some of the best mosaics in existence. Seriously, they were amazing. Look at the way Peter reflects divine light! (Well, the sun...)



One room in the church also has some pretty impressive paintings, including this one of the Anastasis:



I took an ungodly number of photos in this church, there were so many beautiful things to look at. There were also some less-beautiful but highly amusing images, such as this dude with a skin disease:



Once we made it back to the Bosphorus, I treated myself to a delicious fish sandwich. Everyone crowds around the dock on little stools at short tables. They get sandwiches by walking up to these young guys on rocking boats, who work grills covered with cuts of fish. The guys just flip fish onto some bread, and add lettuce and onions, and hand over your meal. Lemon juice is at the table so you can use it liberally—I slathered it on bigtime.