Soon after I arrived back at the hostel, Matt was still not there. I lazed around for a bit and then finally heard the familiar Aussie voice that I had been around for the past couple of weeks. After he got settled in we decided to go for some lunch at a little cafe up the hill from our hostel near the colorful buildings. I think we both go some sort of kebab wrap and just as we were getting ready to ask for the check the prayer calls started blasting from the mosques. Next thing we know we are being asked to wait for all the men to go pray and come back to take care of the check! So as any good patrons would do, we patiently waited while they closed up shop, went and prayed, and then returned to finish taking care of us. They also gave us some complimentary orange tea which tasted more like hot minute maid soda, however it was tasty and free!
After our bellies were full, our first tourist spot we decided to take on was going inside the Blue Mosque. This is the only other mosque in the world with 6 Minarets outside of one in Saudi Arabia I believe. To go inside the mosques, women must have their legs and head covered and you must also remove your shoes. Women are only permitted in a certain area of the mosque as well. Thankfully there is a woman right outside the mosque entrance that has some extra scarves and cloth to wrap around your body. I brought along my own scarf and had her wrap it around my head for me.
The inside of the mosque was absolutely gorgeous, it was a wide open area with low hanging light chandelier type things. Men were inside praying and it was a very awesome experience.
About 20 minutes after we were let in the Blue Mosque a security guard started coming around to everyone and kicking them out. It was almost time for prayer call and they kick all the tourist out of the mosque during this time because it is sacred. I first wondered how the security guard knew we were tourist. "Hey" I thought to myself "we could be Muslim and want to pray too!" But then I decided not to hassle the guy and to just leave.
The next stop was just around the corner and is actually where the main sultan, (can't recall his name) who had the Blue Mosque built, was buried. There were actually several people buried inside this mini-mosque and we snapped a few pictures inside.
Since Matt got in rather late that day we didn't get to do a whole lot, but we had been talking about smoking hookah ever since Santorini. He smoked some when he was in Egypt a few months prior and I hadn't smoked any in ages either. For those of you who don't know...hookah is flavored tobacco that is smoked out of those large pipes like the ones seen in Alice in Wonderland. We head back to the hostel and decide to ask the locals where to go. Luckily for us, the owner is sitting outside chatting with a friend and gives us a recommendation. The place is called Chorlulu Alipasha and it's a huge "water garden" where all the locals go! Sweet, we were gonna get the real deal! And to top it off it wasn't far from the hostel. He sent us with directions and he wrote the name of the place on a piece of paper for us in case we got lost, we could just show it to someone and have them point us in the right direction. We stop off at one of the juice stands on the way and tell the guy working the stand where we were headed. He gave us a rec on one of his favorite flavors and said the place was awesome. He also told us which room to go in because inside Chorlulu there were many different "companies" and they each had their own rooms and prices. Yikes, this description is starting to sound like a prostitution house! When we walk up there is a man tending to the hot coals, I was started to get excited!
Some man greeted us at the door and tried to lead us back to his section but Matt and I just walked over to where we had been advised by the juice stand man. We were in a small smoky room, sitting on padded benches against the wall and our server came up to us. We ordered the apple flavor and then it was presented to us in no time. Of course Matt and I took turns taking pictures of each other blowing the thick billowing smoke from our mouths. I'm sure the other people in the room were thinking, "stupid tourists." Oh well, I'll never see those people again!
I also found it rather amusing that a sign, like the one below, would be posted in a business where all you do is smoke!
I later realized that the sign probably meant no smoking cigarettes inside, that only the smoke from the hookah's were permitted. Either way it was a good laugh. Matt and I also go to talking with another group of people that ended up joining us in the room. An Arab man that spoke great English and then some teenagers he was with, they were all very friendly but after Matt and I had smoked an entire bowl of apple tobacco we had a headache and wanted to get out of there. I grabbed a few more pictures of the main area of Chorlulu as we were leaving...I'm such a tourist!
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