Cold, chilly, wet, and miserable. Windchill of -4 and wet feet, but we all trudged on. I had come halfway around the world to see this building. When I was growing up, my dad had a series of time life books of all the most beautiful architecture in the world and one was the. Haifa Sophia. It was actually one of the primary reasons why I wanted to come to Istanbul.

Unfortunately, a couple of years ago their politicians decided to turn the building from the museum back into a mosque again (highly controversial) so we were unable to be on the first floor, but could only see it from the second floor atrium. Nevertheless, it was still an absolutely beautiful building from the inside. One great thing is that the plaster protected some of the original artwork.