This city has been high on our travel list for many, many years but we never seemed to have the time to get there. So after we had to cancel our spring skiing trip to the Alps due to some work issues, we started looking for reasonable flights for a long weekend away and Istanbul popped up as a cheap destination. We jumped on it!
I must admit that the city did not live up to my expectations. However, in all honesty, my expectations were extremely high. I really wanted to see remnants of the thousands of years of history straddling two continents as the seat of three gigantic empires. Those remnants were there, but they weren't in-your-face like Rome. You have to dig a little deeper. But the effort paid off as we uncovered layer after layer of this fascinating city with the help of the extremely friendly and hospitable local Turks.
The sprawling complex on the left of the hill is were the sultans ruled their empire from - Topkapi palace. The Roman and Byzantine palaces were also here, although they were down on the waterfront.
The Blue Mosque at night. Beautiful to see from almost anywhere in the city.
The Haghia Sophia has been altered over thousands of years. It started as a church, then was converted to a mosque. We loved the orange half-moon only visible from this particular angle because of the dome in front.
Beth did a TREMENDOUS amount of shopping. She loved the Turkish markets. This is the world famous Grand Bazaar. A huge labyrinth of covered shopping. We liked the Spice Market better, but didn't get any good photo's down there.
Haggling is the way to do business in Turkey. Beth was getting pretty good at it by the end of the trip as you can tell by the annoyed look on this vendor's face. She was shopping for Katie and Jodie for Christmas and this guy didn't want to budge on price. Needless to say, Beth finally got them two gifts for the price that she wanted. "You are taking food from my children's mouths!...But, if you want carpet, I have brother..."
Amsterdam coffee shop? Nope, a Turkish hukka lounge. We stuck to beer.
We hiked out to the old wall that successfully protected the city for more than 1000 years against countless sieges. It's really amazing how much space they walled in for the city.
The sultan was finally able to take the city (then Constantinople) by building the "Fortress of Europe" further up the Bosphorus. They built this purely to take Istanbul....and it worked by allowing them to dig in a protect against counter-attack. Amazing.
This Egyptian obelisk was looted by the Romans and set up in the middle of the Hippodrome - a massive arena to rival the Coliseum. We were shocked how crisp the carvings were for something that outlasted all of the Roman buildings and ruins.
The city was crawling with feral cats, which of course Beth befriended. The cats actually seemed pretty well cared for. We saw a lot of food put out for them and the many soldiers/police around the city were seen frequently playing with them.
But the feral dogs were really interesting to watch. We were sitting at the cafe pictured here when a family walked by with a dog on a leash. There are 4 feral dogs in the picture below. The leader is the dog lying by the grate in the upper right hand corner. He caught wind of the new dog and barked out a few orders. The pack quickly assembled (6 in all) and surrounded the domestic dog to attack. Several people had to jump in and scare the feral dogs off. This picture was taken after all the excitement when the pack settled back in to "lounge" mode. We saw lots of packs in the city. One was chasing cats through a back alley and another gave us a nervous scare in a remote part of one of the parks. Crazy!
This picture is primarily for Beth and I's memory benefit. Just one of those crazy things that we walked past every night on the way back to the hotel - this little one-seater bench on a quiet alley. We're wondering which bureaucrat requested this bench. "I have brother. He makes nice bench for you."
The call to prayer was pretty cool to hear echoing through the city (5 times a day). This little cafe was just behind the Blue Mosque, so the sound is a bit tinty.
And this video is for my mom. We always talk about how much we like the markets here in Europe so I tried to capture a bit of the feel as we walked through this one.
