Turkey day 7: the last day

Our first stop was Nicea where they had the counsel that decided the doctrine of the trinity. Though it wasn't raining yet, it was a really cold day. We had a lovely devotional on the sea shore but the wind picked up and we were miserably cold. Today was probably the second coldest day of the semester! After warming up on the bus we made it back to Istanbul. We were finally able to go to Hagia Sophia!!

Let me tell you why this church is amazing:
- built in the 5th century
- it had the largest dome on a church for over a thousand years
- it is still the 4th largest dome behind St. Peter's, St. Paul's, and Florence
- when the Ottomans came instead of destroying the church they converted it into a Mosque
- while converting it, they covered the mosaics so now we see both the old mosaics and the giant gold signs in Arabic. It is amazingly preserved and beautiful! There are still some renovations going and we saw a lot of scaffolding but it was still neat!

I remember sitting in Art History and learning about it and hoping I could see it, but not honestly thinking I would ever make it to Turkey. It was such a neat moment to be able to see it in person! We had a little but of free time to do some more shopping and though it was rainy, our spirits were high- probably because we had the most amazing Turkish Delight ever!

After dinner we took a red eye flight back to Tel Aviv and we came home as the first call to prayer was sounding. Turkey was great, but it always feels good to sleep in your own bed!

Thanks for a wonderful and beautiful week, Turkey!