after visiting the rüstem paşa mosque. It was my first mosque and it was a really nice one. it's super small and seems like a real place of worship instead of just a tourist attraction. it was very beautiful, just as lovely as the bigger ones. it's on the second floor- underneath is a bunch of storefronts on a very crowded shopping street- they used to support the mosque i guess. LIsa and i didn't wear headscarves in istanbul usually. many women don't, in the neighborhood where we were staying there are lots of modern muslim turkish women who don't. when we went to the neighborhood of Balat it seemed like everyone did, but the only time i felt inappropriately exposed was when i was wearting a halter top that showed my arms shoulders and back. i'm glad we were there in october- i can only imagine how hot it would be in the summer, i don't think i'd be able to dress modestly! Lisa and i did cover our heads and took off our shoes in mosques. it's only polite. when we went to the blue mosque there was a whole group of japanese tourists (that's a total sterotype, i have no idea, maybe they were from vietnam or the philipines) who didn't, and it seemed really rude and tacky to me. Plus, lisa and i had just been to the grand bazzar and she had bought all these beautiful scaves, so we were really excited to wear them. it's cool to wear scarves anyway, so we usually had one around our necks. I think ruth wore one in town in Eyüp, a very holy place, but i never went anywhere but mosques where i felt i needed to.
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