Aya İrini, Kadıköy, Çiçek Pasajı

Every intention of visiting one of two intact remaining Byzantine churches in İstanbul, Aya İrini, Hagia Irene or Αγία Ειρήνη in the original Greek, the other being Θεοτόκος Παναγιώτισσα, Mary of the Mongols. Acknowledged by Kübra in Fener-Balat as a heroine of İstanbul, the church in her name is still one. Irene now used as a concert hall and museum was built by Contantine I in the 4th century CE, but, unlike its younger and bigger sister Sophia, was never Islamicised. I took these snaps as we were heading out:

We went by way of Taksim . . .

. . . and the funicular, a short, sweet, heated trip (yes, cold and icy wind above ground here), linking it to Karaköy:

And arriving found Irene shut up, only the entry accessible, and for the same price as the main room of the nave. Several thousand lira each. Nup. Cut our losses and headed for the bazaar for pistachio coffee and coffee coffee Türk kahvesi both of which were delish.

Kadıköy, the Asian side: the ferry took us down and out of the Golden Horn, across the Bosphorus; there were all the people, commuting happily; and there also were markets for cheese and foods as we'd never seen on the European side. I must by this time have been experiencing tourist fatigue because the shots are sparse, hardly indicative, but here they are:

Must be dinner time. To the Flower Arcade, Çiçek Pasajı for our last night in İstanbul.