Istanbul, Day Two (or, Topkapi Palace and its Environs)

Across the street from our hotel is a restaurant with live music every night.  This being Turkey, we usually hear Turkish music sung to the accompaniment of a hammer dulcimer.  A few minutes ago, however, we were treated to 'Happy Birthday.'  I suppose you just can't get away from some aspects of American culture.

Today was another fantastic day of touring, eating, and a lot of walking.  We started off the morning by visiting Topkapi (imagine the last 'i' without a dot on it) Palace.

We continued the morning, and well into the afternoon visiting Topkapi palace.  My favorite part of the palace was the treasury; I have never seen such a collection of large gemstones in one place.   Almost everything in the entire display was encrusted with emeralds, diamonds, rubies, and turquoises.  It's too bad nobody gets to use it anymore.

After palace-ing ourselves out, Brandon and I had lunch at a delicious seafood restaurant.  Having enjoyed an excellent meal, we strolled to a park on the grounds of the palace and I took a nap on the grass.  After resting, we saw the Archeological museum and might have managed to at least walk by almost all of their one million pieces.

While in the museum, Brandon's phone rang.  He picked it up and Kathleen told him how they were painting their fingernails and toenails and eating Scooby-Doo fruit snacks and running up and down the hall.  I looked around at the marble sarcophagi and was so glad, for the twentieth time, that we had left the children at home to enjoy fruit snacks.

After viewing all of the archeological treasures, Brandon and I strolled home by the way of a local sweet shop to pick up our dinner - turkish delight and baklava.

We worked off the diabetic coma by watching YouTube videos and movie trailers.  I felt a little guilty for not being out, enjoying the culture and sights of Istanbul while we were watching transformers blow up New York (or some other major US city).  But then it started raining and now I just feel clever.