"My biological clock just stopped dead in its tracks." -Mika

Today (well technically yesterday for me, but you are all asleep and don't know the difference) we went on a military tour of Istanbul...lol. It was really fun. Our day started out with a goal of visiting this palace that we tried to go to on Mon. but it was closed. Guess what...it is also closed on Thursdays. LOL! It was so funny because all of us are usually really good at knowing the times to be places, but all three of us failed to check times in the guidebook. They are open everyday but Mon. and Thurs. Luckily all of us just thought it was funny rather than getting angry. Then for some reason Mika and Ted convinced me to limbo the security rope. I'm getting old...I'm just not as good at this kinda stuff like I used to be.

After we couldn't go to the palace, we discovered a naval museum near our location. The guidebook didn't say super exciting things about it, but the entrance fee for students was only 1 lira, so we decided to waste our time there. It turned out to be so cool. I don't think guidebooks were written for nerdy people like us. We loved it. They had a map on antelope skin from 1450...that is before Columbus. We also learned cool stuff like that the important people of the military here wear yellow shoes. Turns out if we follow our plans for colored uniforms...Mika is the important one with red clothing and yellow shoes.

After that we walked forever, gave up and caught a bus, walked some more, and ended up at the army museum, our second goal of the day. We got to here the military band again, and it was AWESOME! Ted ended up buying their 1.25 CD. The only sad part of the visit was it was swarmed with small children who were out of control. This is of course when Mika decided she no longer thought kids were cute and wanted one. It was pretty crazy. The museum had so many weapons...apparently the biggest collection in the world. Sadly we didn't have time to see them all before the museum closed, but we definitely got our liras worth.

Today Ted had to leave :(. Now Mika and I are going to have to figure out how to use the map on our own...I think we will be ok. We are taking a cruise down the Bosphorus River today to the Black Sea. It should be exciting. I haven't taken many pictures the past couple of days, so hopefully I will have enough after today to post some more. Enjoy your Thursdays!