Istanbul Mosques

You remember my trip to Istanbul? Well it's hardly surprising that I'm still working my way through the edits with the amount of photos taken. Tonight we have a selection of mosques that are in the city - all of these photos are take on the European side of the waters.

This mosque, the Blue Mosque, had a fabulous wall of decorative tiles. This image is a photo of one of the old washing wells.

This mosque hung the Turkish flag across the street, joining to the building over the road.

The detail over this doorway was very pretty, yet doesn't come across overly well on the image. I do though, like the shape of the shadows created.

All mosques have towers like this one, usually at least two. Men used to climb up, stand on the balconies and sing from them at the time of a call for prayer. Nowadays microphones/megaphones are used.

This photograph looks through an internal courtyard of a mosque, just as prayers are starting.

This mosque I found most fascinating, originally built as a mosque, it then became a Christian Church before being abandoned. It has now been restored back to a mosque.

I have a video on my phone of an evening prayer call, when I figure out how to upload from my phone I will. 

Taksim Square, Istanbul

During my visit to Istanbul I paid a short visit to Taksim Square. Short because I was a little wary of not knowing my way around very well and being on a group trip. However I did manage to grab a few shots whilst I was there.

My visit was during the day whilst the occupancy of the area was peaceful and everyone was having a good time, no rioting.

The square was filled with political messages from all over the world with solidarity from many countries. This shot only shows one side of it and doesn't do much justice as to how full it was.

Heavy machinery wasn't feared as equipment was painted on and some burnt out. 

Left over from the riot the night before, this gas mask was just casually hung on some railings.

Protesters sat sunning themselves and singing songs in the centre of the square.

Graffiti messages were sprayed all over the floor, being walked over by public and protesters.

Viewing the square from the outskirts.

I found the Square a really fascinating place and would have loved to have been a bit braver or to be on my own holiday over there so I could have spent some more time there. 

Kittens!

So last week I went to Istanbul, a city where cats and dogs just roam free. At first this idea seemed quite nice but then I'm a cat person. When I got there and saw the state some of the animals my mind was quickly changed.

This litter of kittens photographed was found in the Book Bazaar..

You'll see as you look closely that this kitten was perhaps the healthiest of the three featured.

And this one perhaps the least healthy..

Meanwhile this one really pulled at my heart strings, as shortly after taking this shot it followed me to the above two.

...And then curled up fell asleep on my foot.

I would have loved to have been able to pick up these little cuties and just bring them home with me.