Turkish delight on a moonlit night, of course.

(Sorry. But a snarky answer is the payback you receive for getting that song stuck in my head.)

Why, do you have a date in Constantinople?

She'll be waiting in Istanbul

Well, there's a timely article at cnn.com...

hashish

You can't go back to Constantinople.
Been a long time gone, Constantinople

Why did Constantinople get the works?

mosch, I, like everyone else apparently, have no real advice, but I am jealous. I've always wanted to go to Istanbul; I've heard nothing but wonderful things.

Light a candle for me in the Haghia Sophia if (a) they have candles to be lit and (b) you have time and remember to do so. I won't hold it against you if you don't. :-)

That's nobody's business but the Turks!

Have fun mosch. I have the jealousy.

Whatever you do, just take lots of pictures!!!

occhiblu: no candles to be lit at Sophia. It's not functional as either a church or a mosque these days. If I understood the guide correctly, it's been a museum only for about 200 years.

That sucker is amazing, as is the fact that it was built in five years. unless, of course, my guide was fudging the numbers to make all those western european cathedral builders look lazy.

That CNN article actually describes some of our pending nightlife ideas, so I'm happy we weren't totally off-base.

(And apparantly constantinople was actually canstantinopoulus, meaning city of people who worship the emporor constantine.. which was replaced by the name Islambul, meaning full of Islam... which was replaced by Istanbul, which means that Turks are forgetful and can't spell.)

(My guide really ruined that song for me, but I didn't break that to him.)

Not a problem, mosch. I'm happy you thought of me, and I'm so glad the building was as amazing as it looks in pictures.

Also, before it was Constantinople (or variants thereof), it was Byzantium. Hence the Byzantine empire. Then yeah, Constantine moved his capital there.