Istanbul, part one...
We spent four nights staying in the Sultanahmet neighbourhood in Istanbul. This is the older town (touristy part) and very commonn for visitors to explore from here as it is possible to walk to many of the sights. We had a pleasant hotel room for the four of us. Unfortunately we had some wifi and water issues when we arrived, but they got sorted out after the first day or so. The view from the terrace overlooking the ships while we ate our buffet breakfast was delightful.
Side note about our Hammam - Rachel is writing a terrific blog post about our Turkish Bath experience - read it!
Hagia Sophia
There are a lot of amazing mosques in Istanbul, but Hagia Sophia is one of the largest and most well-known. We went there on our first morning and joined the line up of people waiting to get in. We waited about 45 min in line before covering our heads, removing our shoes, and exlporing the interior. It was pretty impressive and moving.
As Rachel said, it was nice to have an 'immersive' experience where we saw people praying and got to walk around and explore properly.
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| This huge jar is made from one piece of marble. |
Topkapi Palace
Beside the Haga Sophia is a walled palace with a huge property of gardens and buildings inside. We are still learning which Sultan lived where and built what, but the grounds are beautiful. We went into 'the harem', which was set up to show off the way the Sultan and his immediate family (wife, concubines, mother) lived.
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| These manequins were set up here and there to show how people lived/dressed in the past. |
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| Intricate plumbing / waterway in the courtyard |
Blue Mosque
The blue mosque is another famous and stunning building inside and out, although it's currently under construction. We did go inside after covering our heads and removing our shoes, but the sound of tools working and scaffolding overhead took away from the otherwise-majestic experience. There was a cool display outside explaining some basics about Islam.
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| Construction around the outside |
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| What we saw looking up from the inside |
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| Photo of people praying inside the courtyard from a poster |
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| Photo from poster showing people praying inside - what a sight that would be! |
Grand Bazaar
We were really looking forward to the Grand Bazaar and to be honest, it was disappointing. Although there were some cool sights and fun people watching, the whole thing really feels like a stuffy and smokey indoor shopping mall. We didn't try to buy anything so we didn't get the barter / haggle experience, but we had fun walking around in circles looking at everything for sale. We had street food lunch outside and saw another beautiful mosque nearby. Also nearby is the University, with some lovely buildings.
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| Not actually inside the bazaar, but look at the kinds of teas you can buy! |
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| This is inside the Grand Bazaar |
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| Shops looked like this inside |
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| Beautiful mosque nearby |
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| cats warm up the seats of the mopeds / motorbikes everywhere |
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| University |
Basilica Cistern
Underneath the neighbourhood is a huge cistern - previously used to store water for the use of the city. After some renovations, it's currently a beautiful array of columns and walkways with modern art on display at several turns. We were shocked by the size as we walked around and enjoyed the different columns and medusa heads.
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| column of tears |
Other fun photos from this time:
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| The view from our hotel |
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| A geocaching adventure also took us to the Orient Express train |
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