The flight from Boston to Paris took only 6-1/2 hours, but took an additional 3 hour flight to finally arrive in Istanbul. Although travel weary, this afternoon was the only chance we were going to have to see the Hagia Sophia because it was going to be closed on Monday and we were departing Istanbul early on Tuesday morning. We met two of our group members at the airport (Rocke and Fern from New York) and they too wanted to see the Hagia Sophia. This remarkable building is more than 1400 years old and it was worth the effort we made to see it! It was built over two earlier churches and inaugurated by the Emperor Justinian in the year 537. It was converted to a mosque in the 15th century. Today it is a museum. Rocke recommended also visiting the Basilica Cistern, which was directly across the street. It was the film location of a scene in the James Bond movie From Russia With Love.
After returning to the Maramara Pera Hotel, we met the remainder of the 20 travelers in our group, enjoyed a nice dinner together, and very quickly fell asleep around 9 p.m. However, our visit to Istanbul came during Ramadan and after fasting all day the locals partied till late. We were awakened around 10:30 p.m. by an outdoor concert across the street from our room. We quickly donned our ear plugs and fell back asleep.
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