I wrote this three days after the fact. I will eventually catch up.
Our first day was mostly a travel day, 24 hours from the time we got up until we landed in Istanbul. The only semi exciting thing was an LGBT demonstration in the square across from our hotel in Taskin Square complete with riot police, but I think it was mostly over by the time we arrived. 
I'm not counting the day of traveling, so our fun first day in Istanbul was wonderful I think we saw the big four --the Blue Mosque, also known as Ahmet sultan mosque, the Hagia Sofia, Topkapi Palace, and the bazaar.
The Blue Mosque 
is called that mostly since the 60's when casual travelers couldn't remember the name --I can certainly identify with that -- and so they just described it as the one that was all blue inside.
It is a gorgeous building, and the only one in Istanbul with six minarets. It can hold 3000 worshippers, and that many more in the courtyard on a big holy day. They have a definite dress code for women, which is head covered, shoulders covered, knees covered (you know how erotic women's knees can be), and if you aren't appropriately covered, they have things you can put on. I was appropriately modest, but one of the women in our group had on pants that were too tight, more like leggings, and she had to take the borrow a skirt. 
We were there early in the day. I bet those borrowed clothes on a hot day can get kind of nasty, now that I think about it. Following our visit there, we went to Hagia Sophia (which I always thought was the same building as the mosque, because I knew Hagia Sophia had been a Christian church, then a mosque, then Christian and then decommissioned.). 
And to my eyes, they look quite similar. Also, it turns out that they are only about two blocks apart.
The Hagia Sophia was built three different times. Of course, I've already forgotten why, though I think one time was a fire. It also had to do with the ego of the builder. It was at one time the largest Christian church in the world. Today it is smaller than St. Peter's, St. Paul in London, and one other I can't remember, but it's still the oldest -- from 425 AD. 
From there we went to Topkapi Palace, built for a sultan. 
What a gorgeous place. Some decoration over the main door had a very Art Nouveau look. The rooms we were able to see were decorated with beautiful mosaics and painting. 
One room looked like it might have been Doris Duke's inspiration for one of the rooms at her Honolulu house.
Finally we went to the bazaar. It's a huge, brightly lit wonderful shopping area. Totally not the crowded dark, scary bazaar I had pictured. You could get lost if you had the time, but we didn't have enough time to get lost.
We basically had a snack for dinner and I went outt for a walk while zoe went to sleep. I discovered that across the street, in Taskin Square, they were having one of the Ramadan break the fast feasts. Our tour guide had shown us earlier today when we were at the mosque, that they had about 60-100 picnic tables set up and an equal number of little stalls where you can buy food. Of course at that time of day, they were all closed because everyone was fasting, but they open every night because people like to break the fast together. In Taskin square, people had apparently all ordered the same thing ahead of time, and it was delivered to their tables in boxes like pizza boxes, which contained the food packaged more or less like it's given to you on an airplane. There were lots of families there. They also had a very interesting band, which is what attracted me there in the first place to see what was going on.
Our second full day we had to get to the airport at 7:30 am to go to Izmir, the town closest to the ruins of Ephesus. They are very interesting ruins. Unfortunately, it was very hot, and there was very little shade, even though we were there about 10:30 a.m. 
Following that we went to a nice al fresco lunch on a cool grass lawn, under giant shade trees and with a refreshing breeze. It was so nice. 
This was at a rug factory, which is not really a factory but a place that teaches women to make lovely handmade rugs and sells them. Zoe and I each bought a beautiful rug. 
Following that we stopped at the place where John the Evangelist is thought to be buried. I must have missed something, because I can't believe the Catholic Church would let his bones stay in an abandoned ruin like this without a cathedral over it. Along the way we saw several stork nests full of storks, which I thought was more interesting than the ruins. 
And then we went to the boat. Yippee.
What we didn't find out until the next day, (I'm writing this two days later) is that there was a terrorist bombing in the Istanbul airport the day we left, though in the later part of the day, and many of our friends thought we might have been there. We were all fat dumb and happy, enjoying our dinner on the ship. And there were internet problems, so we didn't even happen to send out any emails last night.
