Kariye by the Wall

Since the Archeology Museum is closed every Monday we decided to head to a small Byzantine Church near the edge of the old city. Getting there was a real adventure, it was raining a bit, but we decided to walk around and up to the metro. We rode the metro up to Taksim where we caught bus 87 for the cross town, under the aqueduct, out to the far side of old Constantinople, express. We got off the bus a bit early and walked up the streets and around the corners until we came to what was called "the old residential quarter" there weren't the apartment buildings we're used to seeing, hardly any of them were over three stories. Walking down the brick streets we'd catch occasional glimpses of the old city wall.

Kariye is a small Byzantine church, with two entry halls, a main gallery and two side galleries. One of the side galleries was closed, either for restoration or because it was crumbling and uninteresting. The ceilings and walls of the entry halls and main gallery were done with mosaics while the side gallery was covered up the walls and the ceiling in frescos. This was some great stuff, have a look.









We walked around the old neighborhood a bit after we left. Near the wall we stopped, a woman was holding her child up in a window and they were waving at us. I smiled and waved back, the child was adorable, maybe two or three years old. People here are so friendly, you can experience so much just by riding the bus and watching people's faces, or walking down a quiet residential street.



Then we caught a cab back to the apartment, for a relaxing evening of cards. I'm going to miss Makena and Eric when they leave. They know this so they're trying to make me sick of them. It's time for bed here, tomorrow we go back to the Archeology Museum for round four. I love hearing from all of you, iyi akshamlar and good night.