On Thursday, we stopped at Istanbul. On the cruise, we were told that in Greece and Italy, only euros would be accepted. In Turkey, EVERYTHING is accepted: dollars, euros, first born children, whatever. That's not too surprising, since the city has been at the crossroads of continents for over 2000 years. They must be natural born merchants.

Here is one of the main buildings in Istanbul, the Blue Mosque:


I also went through the Hagia Sophia. It was built in the 6th century and was the largest church until St. Peters was built.