Turkey – Istanbul

I arrived safely in Istanbul very early in the morning.  Unfortunately I only dosed on the flight so I was very very tired when I arrived.  I made it to my hotel and checked in early.  I was able to get a few hours sleep before Rose arrived later in the afternoon.  It was fantastic to see her again and I’m very excited to be doing this tour with her.

We met with our tour leader and our tour mates (there are only 9 of us) in the evening to go over the details of our trip.  It looks like we will hit all the highlights of western Turkey including Ephesus, Pumakkale, and Capadoccia.   You’ll get details as we go!  The fun part of these tour is that as much as possible we are going to use public transit so it’s not your typical bus tour which I’m thankful for.  It seems like we have a really good group – 4 Aussies, 3 Canadians, 1 American, and 1 Scot.  Everyone is very friendly and nice so the dynamic is great so far.

Today was our first official full day.  We started the day with an orientation walk.   We are staying in the “Golden Horn” area which is the old section of the city and was the heart of both the Byzantine and Ottoman empires.  Everything is within a pretty easy walk of our hotel which is down by the harbour.

Our tour started by going by Hagia Sophia which was an orthodox cathedral built by Emperor Justinian in the 6th century and the Blue Mosque which is right beside Hagia Sophia.  We didn’t go into either because of the crowds.  Rose and I will definitely return as we have a few days in Istanbul after the tour is finished.

Hagia Sophia – cathedral built by Justinian, then converted to a mosque, now a museum – inside visit after the tour is done

Blue Mosque

We did go inside another mosque though and it was beautiful.  Sorry I can’t remember the name – so many were mentioned.  One of the problems with a tour is that you get information overload and you just follow along without really knowing where you are going or what you are seeing.

Taking our shoes off to visit the mosque

Inside mosque – head covering required for women

We also did a quick breeze through the Grand Bazaar which is the largest covered bazaar in the world.  Rose and I returned during our free time this afternoon to do some shopping – though we didn’t buy much it is just too overwhelming with choices!

Entrance to the Grand Bazaar

Inside the Grand Bazaar

Grand Bazaar – strangely empty during Friday prayers

Along the way today we got to try some yummy new foods.  For me the best was freshly squeezed pomegranate juice and apple tea.  The prevalence of these is like the orange juice stands and mint tea which were everywhere in Morocco.  I think these will be daily consumptions if available in the places we are going.

Apple tea

Fresh squeezed pomegranate juice

Honey and pistachio turkish delight – chewy sweet that they claim is an aphrodisiac

Stuffed peppers

Turkish pizza – yummy but my stomach finally is rebelling at the cheese which will be avoided from now on :(

I’m glad that we have some time in Istanbul after our tour is finished as there is so much to see here.  We didn’t really have a plan for today but I have a long todo list already for when we come back!