First, Istanbul was incredible!!!
Second,
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!! I'll talk about what we did today, tomorrow :)
So, Turkey, Before going we met some hesitation about our trip to Turkey from only a few people. Which is understandable seeing as it shares a border with Iraq. But we felt confident enough in our research about Istanbul and recent events and travelers there about being in Istanbul which is on the other side of the country that after giving it a little thought, we figured, we would be fine...and we were. As we sat in our hotel room in Istanbul watching the news I was thankful we didn't choose a "safe" destination like "London" to go to, as all the crazy stuff with the bombs and the cars was going on. Just goes to show, no matter where you are in this world, you can never truly know what to or what not to expect.
So, Turkey, in short, it was a very interesting city with easily the nicest people in any place I have ever been. The turks even put Lubbock to shame! Which, if you have spent time in Lubbock, you know it is full of some of the friendliest people ever.
So, these are just a few images of the things that are completely Istanbul in my eyes. I'll get more in tomorrow as well...these are just to wet your pallet.
View of Istanbul from a bridge where everyone was fishing into the river. There were hoards of people getting off all the boats and ferries. Reminded me of a time where people would come from all over to bring their merchandise to sell and come to shop in the big city.
Carpet shop across the street from our hotel.
Carpets, are to say the least, a big deal in Turkey. Every corner you turn there would be a carpet shop or 20. I said the people are friendly and they are, and with that, they are very good sales people and everyone will talk to you on the street if they are selling something. EVERYONE. Even restaurants would call out, Hi! Look at my menu! And carpet salesmen would say, come look at my carpets, they are pleasures for the eyes. So of course, our first day in Istanbul we are walking to our hotel and on the corner is a nice man who starts talking to us and asks where we are from and then tells us to come look at his carpets, just to look in the window on our way to the hotel. Ok why not. but of course somehow we magically appear inside the shop. His brother works there too and they bring us tea (which again, is so very typical) The Turkish say that if you share a glass of tea, you will have 40 years of friendship. So we take his tea and we chat for a little bit, then he starts showing us carpet after carpet after carpet. and they were beautiful. Red ones, blue ones, big ones small ones, one fish two fish, red fish blue fish- sorry couldn't resist. In the end we got narrowed down to two we really liked, but of course, we didn't come to Turkey to buy a carpet (but EVERY carpet seller will immediately say, no one comes to Turkey to buy a carpet) We chatted for a bit more and left, and for the rest of our time there, we always waved to the two men in this little carpet shop. If you find yourself in Istanbul your trip could not possibly be complete without experiencing the carpet shop. Its not just a carpet shop, its truly an experience.
The Grand Bazaar seemed like something out of an old Arabian story. This covered bazaar was HUGE and contained 4,000 shops! Again here, everyone super friendly, everyone wanting to talk, everyone wanting you to come into their store to see their merchandise, and everyone offering tea. We got lost in here and because of here several times. Neither of us feel we have bonded with the city, until we find ourselves lost within its borders. I can honestly say there has never been a city outside of the United States where we didn't at one point (or more) look at each other and say, Where are we? And usually about 2 hour later, we make it back to the hotel exhausted from all the walking. Inside the bazaar was amazing, and much to my surprise, only very very very slightly touristy. But once outside, I was in love. It was clear we were obviously the only tourists anywhere around. It was like the bazaar but full of real life stuff and not just souvenir type stuff. The streets were PACKED and narrow. Men ran around carrying and delivering tea to the shop workers. It was the perfect picture in my mind of what I will remember Istanbul being. I however didn't take any pictures of the outside area. Too crowded and crazy to stop to get a picture. But this is a shop inside the grand bazaar.
We went to Topkapi Palace which at one time was the residence of the Sultan. We got there early in the morning and practically had the place to ourselves the first hour. The second hour we went into the Harem. Again, practically had the whole place to ourselves. When we were leaving the Harem back into the main palace grounds we noticed that it had become so flooded with people that we were shocked we were even still in the same place! This is a wall inside the Harem. I thought it was beautiful.
This is half of the view we had at breakfast every morning.
The Blue Mosque. Named so for all the blue tiles inside the building. Several times a day there would be a call to prayer (which I have on video and ill get that up soon). All the mosques have megaphones all over the towers. And at certain times you would just start hearing a man singing/chanting thoughout the city and people would make their way to the mosques and even sometimes to the side of the street with their carpets, get on their knees and have prayer time.
Aya Sophia - built as a Catholic Basillica but later was turned into a Mosque. Inside you can see both aribic writing along with ancient Christian mosaics. At one time all the Christian influences were covered but with restorative work some have been uncovered.
And Finally Good 'ol Starbucks. Now why on earth would anyone go all the way to Turkey to drink Starbucks? Oh, thats easy, because your normal cup of drip coffee in Istanbul is just.. not good at all. And Second, because we needed a Starbucks fix. There is only one in Denmark that just opened a few weeks ago and its in the airport. So uually in the afternoons we would hop over here for a cup of coffee. It was almost right across the street from the hotel. By the time we left we were regulars. Michael liked it because one of the guys working there said, "excuse me are you a bodybuilder" to Michael. So that boosted Michaels ego a bit ;) Back to Turks being nice, at the end of any conversation we had, they would always thank us for it.
