Today I went to the Ayasofya Mosque which happens to be one of the most important buildings in Istanbul. Its been a church a mosque and then a church again and now it is once again a mosque and I’m sure that’s the way it will stay.

Building started in the 6th century and old Justinian had a hand in this place as well. It was known as Constantinople back then because the emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman empire here because he thought that this new religion called Christianity would be good for him at the polling booth. He is the reason why the Christian myth travelled so far and so wide.

The same hypocrisy and nuance in politics and in life is no different today, time does not seem to altered man’s greed for power or for money for that matter. Mind you the legacy that’s been left in stone is quite remarkable, and the legacy left in the psyche is still very troubling.

I would have liked to explore every nook and cranny but I guess for security and preservation us mere plebs only have access to the ground level. There are even Viking Runes inscribed on the upper level where one of them more or less wrote “Kilroy was here” They travelled far and wide those old Vikings.

So the Ayasofya was today’s goal, I am not going to go anywhere else today. I’ve been for lunch in between snow showers and my umbrella has survived a tree branch falling on it and also the wind trying to morph it into a piece of art and so I’m in the hotel foyer just now sitting under a very old fashioned and extremely non green heater that is suspended from the roof. I really don’t know where to go or what to do and I’d rather be a wee bit warmer sitting in a comfy chair which just happens to be very similar to the one that the Spanish Inquisition used in Monty Python.

Oh and the pictures don’t really do this place any justice, it’s an incredible space.