Tour of Turkey

Day 2:  Istanbul


I had a very difficult time sleeping last night, so Jason let me sleep in a bit and we wound up getting a a later start than I would have liked.  That's okay, though we still got a lot done!  Ready?  Here we go....

It all started with the Topkapi Palace, The palace grounds for the all of the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire.  The harem area was amazing and the rest of the palace was just beautiful.  The treasure room was spectacular, too, with the 86 carat Spoonmaker's Diamond and the Topkapi dagger as highlights. None of our pictures did it justice, so we won't upload them, but look online, I'm sure you'll see some cool ones.

Next we moved onto the Aya Sofia, very pretty.

We were quite hungry after all of that.  Our room includes breakfast, but it was nearly 2 by now, so we decided to walk around and find some lunch.  It wasn't as inexpensive as we thought it would be, looking at the menus.  Then some man started talking to us...  I tried to get away, but Jason obliged him and they had a nice long conversation and this guy took us to his favorite place for lunch and asked us to visit his store after.  We tried to decide if we were going to visit the store, but he saw us leave and brought us to his store.  30 minutes later, he was still trying to sell us rugs!  Rug after rug after rug!

Finally we got into the Basilica Cistern, featured in The International and From Russia with Love.  It was Jason’s favorite so far.  Very cool and eerie.

Our next stop was the Blue Mosque.  It was built by the Ottoman Sultan to outdo the Byzantine Aya Sofia.  I think they did it.  Jason walked in and was amazed!  Last time I was here, they required women to cover their hair, so we brought scarves and covered up.  It is an operating mosque, after all.  But when we got in, women weren’t covered.  We kept ours on, though, to be respectful.  These pictures don't show the blueness of the tiles, but at least you can get an idea of how intricate it all was.  Every inch covered in tile.  It was really stunning.

After all of that excitement, we finally came to the part Jade was most looking forward to, the Grand Bazaar.  We looked around for lights to put into my kitchen, but after the umpteenth store, I was shopped out and Jason was definitely shopped out, so we skipped out.  It was very cool but overwhelming.

When we were done with our day, we went to the top of the Ambassador Hotel, which I read had a great view, to have a beer and put our feet up.  What do you think?   The first thing you will see is the Aya Sofia, then the Blue Mosque in the distance.  There was also a show going on featuring dancers and music from the different regions of Turkey.  This one is from the Black Sea region, my favorite!

Finally, we went back to the hotel, changed, and had some dinner.  Tomorrow should be a little less exhausting and I hope to get a better night's sleep.