We woke up to the news of Shinzo Abe being shot dead. First the Georgia Guidestones were blown up yesterday then Abe was assassinated with a homemade gun today. The gods are really trying to put a damper on this news junky’s vacation. I refuse to be deterred. I will continue to enjoy Istanbul.
We started the morning as always with breakfast.
Then it was time to hit the road! We went walking along the beach for about an hour looking at ruins and taking photos along the way. 
Our first major stop was this big column signifying the defeat of the Goths! This is the oldest known monument from the Roman era still surviving intact.
Then we went to the Aqueduct of Valens. Human engineering never ceases to amaze me! These aqueducts were begun in th early 300’s and completed during the reign of emperor Valens. Valens was the emperor killed at the Battle of Adrianople. He wasn’t a big fan of religious bickering and he wanted the Nicene Christians and all the other types of Christians to just get along. What the heck does that mean?
You probably don’t even know you’re a Nicene Christian. I find many religious people know little about what they claim to believe. Here, let me help you. Are you Christian? Do you believe in the Holy Trinity? All that 3 in 1 stuff? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in one? Okay well that’s Nicene Christianity and it definitely was not the only type of Chritianity way back then, it just happened to become the popular belief system like how a particular style of music becomes popular or a style of clothing becomes popular and it’s pretty much the only fashionable one today. Very few Christian sects are nontrinitarian today. Back then though, it was just another sect and they would all bicker and fight all the time. Emperor Valen hated it and wanted everyone to get along.
Next we went to the Church of Saint Mary of the Mongols. It’s the only remaining Eastern Orthodox church in Istanbul that has never been converted into a mosque and it’s been a continuous church since the 7th century! It’s not open to the public and it’s got big walls around it so this is the best you get. We knew we weren’t going to get to see it but we wanted to go anyway. Don’t be fooled by the huge brick building in the distance, that’s a university. The only part of the church you can see is the little steeple.
All her life I have encouraged my daughter to talk to strangers. I detest the idea of Stranger Danger! Talking to strangers is how you make the best friends. Once, in London, I struck up a random conversation with a stranger in a coffee shop and it turned out she was a security guard at Tate Modern Art Museum and she offered us free friends and family passes to the special exhibits for the day. I mention this because talking to strangers worked out for us again today.
A guy on the street asked us where we were from and instead of blowing him off and walking on we stopped to chat. It turned out he he’s American, and a high level priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church! He was recently transferred here from his parish in the States and now has an office job working for the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople! He told us the history of the area and about some other places we might want to see.
We were standing directly in front of the old nunnery. We wouldn’t have known that. 
We walked over to the Patriarch to see it next. This is basically the Vatican of the Eastern Orthodox Church. They’d probably get mad at me for saying it like that ya know…schism and all… but I’m trying to speak in laymen’s terms.
Some scenes from the Greek part of town. This is definitely the “cooler” “hipper” part of town. Or at least trying to be. There were far fewer people annoying us on the sidewalk to try to get us to come in their cafe and there were far more people who looked as if they had smoked one too many doobies over the years. I recommend getting a room in this part of town 🙂
Next we walked to the Bulgarian St. Stephen’s Church. It’s famous only because the whole thing is made of steel. Here you can see the screws holding it together.
A funny thing happened inside. The man cleaning the floors stopped me to ask me if my grandfather was Irish. I mean, I don’t speak Turkish but I’m pretty sure that’s what he asked me. It’s what it sounded like. All my life I’ve been reminded of how Irish I look. Random people will just stop me on the street and say “You’re Irish” or ask “Are you Irish?” or when we were actually in Ireland a few years ago people kept asking me directions. My ancestry really is Irish but this is a thing that really, really happens to me a *lot* and some random guy cleaning the floors in the Bulgarian Iron Church of Istanbul was so curious be stopped me to ask me if I was Irish.
Next we went to a famous Eastern Orthodox Monastery with a famous fountain where some famous song was written but honestly I got distracted by this cat. So, this is what you get.
After that monastery we were off to another one! This one was really cool though. The floor was lined with old gravestones. It also had a magical fountain at it. Erected by, get this, Emperor Justinian in the year 559 CE!!!!
The story goes he was out hunting and saw some old ladies standing around a well. He asked hey..whazzup? They said it was miraculous healing water and he ordered a beauticul church to be built on the spot from the left over materials from the Hagia Sophia.
The building I saw is not the original building, several have been destroyed and rebuilt over the years, but the natural spring is still there and there’s still a church and active monastery in the location.
Okay. Now we were off to see the Walls of Constantinople. We sat and had Turkish coffee right by the walls that protected Byzantium from invaders all the way up until 1453.
We tried to go to Mehmed II’s dungeon fortress turned museum but it’s closed for the holiday 🙁 I’ll talk about the holiday tomorrow. So we had another coffee.
Our day was finally closing and we chose to take a taxi home seeing as we had reached nearly 20,000 steps, it was hot, and we were tired. And this hearse was in front of us for some of the way.
And dinner. Tastes just like anyone’s grandma’s stew from anywhere aroudn the world. It’s one of the things I love so much about traveling: seeing how little different we are and how much we’re really the same.
http://https://youtu.be/mcMKP-JlSDQ