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| Beautiful but unsettling at the same time. Ayia Sofia inner chambers |
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| Ayia Sofia |
I got up at about nine-ish and went downstairs for the rather nice and extremely healthy Turkish breakfast that the hostel offered for free.
There are many other things I could have forfeited, but the Hagia Sophia is not one of them. I went in the late afternoon, about two hours before closing time so that I was able to avoid the long dreadful queues and hordes of people. I got my tickets without having to wait at all, then went in.
I thought it was beautiful, but the cathedral/mosque looked, and felt damaged. It echoed of a place that had been through fire and ruin, and there was something unnerving about seeing the scriptures of the Quran imposed upon the fading murals of Peter and Paul. And yet for all of this, Hagia Sophia still retained some of its former magnificence that had earned it the title of the most beautiful cathedral in Christendom. At the peak of its might, it must have rivalled St Peter's Cathedral in Rome.
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| The Blue Mosque |
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| The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia were separated by this walkway |
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| Hagia Sophia |
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| Inside the Hagia Sophia |
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