Conquering Conquerors

The past two days has been about seeing what we didn't see before, revisiting sites we wanted to see more of, and last minute shopping to get teaching materials and souvenirs.....
Yesterday 5 of us went to the Archaelogical Museum - totally amazing;the Spice Bazaar - shopping! ; the Pera Museum of Art - beautiful; and then for dinner the whole group went to dinner at a place featuring music and belly dancing. Great views of the Hagya Sofia Museum and the Blue Mosque - gorgeous lit up at night! The music and dancing left a bit to be desired but hey, we were together and then survived amazing taxi rides home "double time speed" and for some double rates as well. Which reminds me that in general, I have been impressed with the integrity of all the people who have dealt with us language challenged people across the region. A few people have been taken advantage of - mostly by taxi drivers.
This morning, however, we found a taxi driver who really went out of his way for us! The same 5 of us (Abbey, Stacy, Jeff, Ben, and I) decided to go to at 6:45 AM to see the Gate of Theodosius, where Mehmet the Conqueror's army broke through the wall of Constantinople to overthrow the Byzantine emperor. It is not an easy place to find when we only speak English and have a tiny map and vague name and the driver spoke only a little English. But after several stops and turn-arounds we finally arrived - at least the driver said we had (maybe he was just tired of us!) so we piled out and looked at the wall in front of us. Abbey, the expert on these things said, "This isn't it - we're going to have to walk about a mile and a half to get there!" I suggested we go ahead and walk through the opening and see what was on the other side. And there, in large gold script was a sign proclaiming that we ewre indeed at the sight we had been looking for. Relief was huge and we took pics and clowned around before catching another taxi back to our hotel. Mission accomplished in 45 minutes! It was great fun.
We split up for the morning and I got a few last minute items purchased (I am about 10 pounds overweight on 1 bag but the other is full - I may have to scoot down to a shop to get a bigger bag in the morning - cheaper than overweight charges by 50%! We then went back up to the Blue Mosque site and explored for a couple of hours before meeting back up with the group to attend a Whirling Dervishes "performance". We were able to meet with one of the sect members/performers for a bit before the program, which was informational. The hour long program was very reverent and solemn.... so much for the oft used term "whirling dervish" to mean someone frantically rushing about! It was rather magical, really.
Our farewell dinner was at the first restaurant we ate at - deja-vu - can it really be the end already? Bittersweet and yet we are all ready to get home to the joys of driving, school beginning, cell phones, cooking, and being in charge of our own lives. Thank you for sharing the journey with me/us!