arrange in advance). Test out their English a bit first and make sure they show you their badge! That will get you through the line without waiting and a guide is kind of needed unless you know your Turkish/Byzantine history.

The tombs of the Sultans are right there and fun to check out. Also the Blue Mosque if it is open is right across the park.

The Grand Bazaar of Istanbul is a few blocks from the Hagia Sofia and is cool to check out as well. Find a good spot to check out the remaining section of the walls of Constantinople.

I don’t know much about then Basilica Cisterns but it appears in the Da Vinci Code sequel. and looks incredible. I have never had the chance to see it though.

Be a little careful with strangers. I’ve been there 4 or 5 times and once I had a guy try to befriend me and make himself my informal tour guide and then not want to let me go until I visited a rug shop his family owned. Just kept following me around everywhere. Waiting for me outside places. It was not good and made me nervous. No idea if he would have become threatening but I walked to where there was a cop right there (this was in the park between the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia) then I escaped by calling an Uber or maybe it was grabbing a taxi, I forget. If it happened again I would simply grab a taxi immediately. He spoke good English and began a conversation by asking where I was from and saying he used to live in America. After questioning it was plain he had never been there but knew the names of lots of large cities and would throw them out.

The Patriarchy of Istanbul is like the Vatican of Orthodox Christianity and cool to visit as well but it is something you would need to get a cab to take you to.

All in all I’m pretty jealous. I love that town so much. The food is amazing, the sights are great, and things are very cheap ($ to lira I think is 1:32 and prices for a very good meal were like 20-30 lira pp last time I was there—although it was 1-7 dollar to lira then).

The other thing is Istanbul is HUGE. It is the size of LA and just about as spread out. It can take 2 hours to get from the main airport to downtown if traffic is bad (and it often is). The smaller airport on the Asian side of the city (the Bosphorus divides the city in half and also divides Europe from Asia) is easier to get into and out of but doesn’t have as many international flights.

Any way— have fun!!