Tourists

Topkapı Palace is the Alcatraz of Istanbul.  Except that Al Capone never lived there and it's actually worth seeing.  But the admissions price, crowds, and lack of any real live natives who aren't on a school trip are exactly the same.  Yes, Rachel, Michelle, and I were tourists.  We couldn't escape it:

You can read all about Topkapı Palace on wikipedia.  There's no use trying to explain it here, since most of my pictures are of tiles and ceilings.

Next, we went to the Basilica Cistern, which was absolutely awesome, except that it was filled with fish.  According to Michelle, the Turks eventually forgot about this 6th century structure but rediscovered it when they found people fishing out of their basements.  See, I'm not making this up.  A fish could totally come up my drain and eat me.  

And finally, Kanyon, a ridonculous mall,

to see (drumroll please) Mama Mia (thankfully on the second try not confused with Mumya).  This was perhaps the worst movie I have ever seen, and Michelle and I enjoyed every minute of it.  Rachel, on the other hand, still seems shell-shocked.  Maybe we should have seen The Mummy after all.