It is a city reeking of history and centuries of commerce. Boats ply the Bosphorus day and night. The mosques with their pencil thin minarets are everywhere and the muezzin's call to prayer can be heard in every quarter five times a day. While in a rug shop one day, I heard the prayer call and knowing the salesman was a Kurd, I asked him if he wanted to take a break from selling so he could go to the mosque to pray. No, he said, he would pray later.
Rug selling in Istanbul stops for nothing.
Islam is everywhere. And so, we visited several mosques, dutifully removing our shoes before entering. One of the mosques we most wanted to see was across the Bosphorus. After a short ferry ride we began our search through the twisted streets. Just as the taxi pulled away, and much to our disappointment, we realized the mosque had a padlock on the front door.