The Final Hours

Today was short and simple. Right down the street is the enterance to the Bacilica Cistern. This is a massive underground hall that was used to get water to Topkapi Palace. The whole chamber is held up by big stone pillars and at the end of the hall are two large stone heads depicting Medusa. There is about a foot if water everywhere so you must walk around on little wooden bridges. It may have been my favorite thing to see here in Istanbul. It looked so mysterious and eerie. To help with this effect were lights at the base of every pillar as well as slow music to create the ombiance. Next we took a train to Taksim square accros the river and then walked back and just watched people. When we got back into the old city we went back to the Grand Bazaar and bought some stuff. These guys check out our whiteness and immediately jack their prices up five fold so you gotta bargain and get them to bring prices back down. Often walking away will have them shouting out their lowest price yet to your back. Turn around and go back at it. At once store in particular I watched Jacob and the seller engage in a beautiful dance of verbal price jousting, which ended in our favor. It was thoroughly impressive. We returned to our hostel's rooftop restaurant and just chilled for a few hours, ducking out once for a cheap kabob for dinner. We meet a traveler here from Colorado, Devon, who we hung out with up on the roof, listening to his travel stories. It was a nice relaxing day to end a very busy trip. Tomorow we're up at five to head to the airport. I'll post once more once we get home!