It was not until 1030am, when we finally woke up, that it became clear that our bodies were not ready for last night's raki. So having already lost part of the day, we had a fast breakfast and took the metro and tram to old-town to see some sights.
Our first stop was the archeological museum, which was modest, under renovation and missing most of its artifacts due to the British. But, they did have the one artifact we were both hoping for: links from the chain that was used to protect the Golden Horn (a sliver of water that runs perpendicular to the Bosphorous into Istanbul's heart) for over 600 years in Byzantium Constantinople. This chain was innovative, and together with its city walls, helped to secure the city for over 1,000 years.
By the time we made it through the museum a heavy rain had set in over the city that impaired our ability to make good decisions. Rather than simply walk over to the Blue Mosque we decided to take a long wet walk over to the Ottoman Palace (Topkapi), which we learned is closed on Tuesdays. We then took an equally long and wet walk over to the Spice Market where we noted the reasonable price of saphron but purchased six new Turkish towels.
Eager to get back to our room to dry off we took the 140 year old 'Tunel' - a 1/2 km inclined subway that runs uphill - back to Beyoglu, which saved us from making our 10th trip through the Galata hills. Once back and finally dry we found a nice vegetarian restaurant in the lively back alleys of Beyoglu and set out plans for our day tomorrow. And just as important to our planned early rise was the absence of raki from our dessert order!
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