istanbul, turkey – days two & three

While I could fill you in on exactly what we did at each hour on each day (because I did such a good job documenting) I will save you the time.  Here are a few highlights:

Breakfasts, of course.  I’ve been recreating in my own kitchen, but it’s not the same.

The Grand Bazaar was crowded and overwhelming, and everywhere you turn a salesman wants to “ask you a question” or “show you something very quickly”.  An experience, but I preferred the much smaller Arasta Bazaar just behind the Blue Mosque.

Grand Bazaar – spices and turkish delight for days.

We took the light rail out to the Byzantine City Walls of Constantinople, where there wasn’t much to look at.  Joe was obsessed with walking along it, under it, over it and near it.  Me on the other hand, I just wanted to get off of it.  Thank you, G, for instilling in me a deep, deep fear of heights.

Walking on the City Wall

The Hagia Sofia & Mosaic Museum were both incredible and very complimentary of each other.  I strongly recommend purchasing the three-day museum pass for the savings in money and time, and a little nudge to see a bit more.  The Hagia Sofia is a basilica turned mosque; most of the mosaics had been covered by medallions with words of the Quran.  The building is crazy big and crazy old, and it’s a trip to see the arches bending under the pressure of it all.  Scaffolding covers a good portion of the inside and has for some 20 years because they keep running out of money for restoration.  The medallions adorning the walls and ceilings are beautiful… but of course my favorite part was the mosaic fresco on the ceiling when you enter.  Did they miss this one when they were covering all the faces?

Hagia Sofia (yes, I know, I need a new camera)

Joe the tourist in front of the Hagia Sofia

The Mosaic Museum is small and contains all mosaics pulled from Palace grounds.  It is literally a collection of the sidewalks royalty walked on thousands of years ago.  Very fancy.

Mosaic Museum – look closely and you can see thousands of tiny tiles.

We did eventually make it to a typical Turkish cafeteria a la Rick Steves.  Had no idea how to order, so we definitely wound up with three entrees, but it was delicious and an experience I wouldn’t want to miss.

Chef at a typical Turkish Cafeteria

Turkish Delight in the cafeteria

As I put these posts together I realize just how much we explored and experienced the city.  Between Joe’s hunger for history and my need to stop at every Turkish towel store in town, I am so happy to say that we saw quite a bit.  It’s taking awhile to pull it all together, but I’ll work on posting the rest of the trip in the next few weeks.  It’s telling that we are still in Istanbul, which were just the first four days of a two week adventure.  Stay tuned!

 

 

 

istanbul, turkey – day one

Taking inspiration from a friend, I decided that on this trip I’d journal as much as possible.  I did it in my phone, which was far more successful than the oh so cute little leather book I brought to France last summer.  Makes sense.  Even without service I seemed to always have it on me.  This could get boring, but I want to remember it all, so here goes…day one.

Woke up bright and early to the call to prayer.  As I mentioned here, we were just up the road from the Blue Mosque, which meant as soon as the sun poked out, I was awake.  I was able to will myself back to sleep, a positive because starting the day at 4:45 with jet lag is never a good idea.   Breakfasts in Turkey are ridiculous.  I mean amazing. I mean the best.  For 12 mornings in a row I would help myself to all the fresh fruit & veggies, cheese, dried fruit, olives, yogurt, preserves, walnuts, muesli, hard & soft boiled or scrambled eggs, turkish coffee and so much more.   Morning number one may have been the best of all – regardless of what I ate, the experience of seeing that spread for the first time was something.

breakfast in Istanbul

turkey – the blue mosque

Four nights and five(ish) days we were in Istanbul, and throughout that time not once did the blue mosque become any less magnificent to me.  My favorite place to view it was the rooftop deck of our hotel; my second favorite – just sitting on a bench in the Disneyland-esque landscaped park that sits between it and the Hagia Sofia.

In all her glory at night. What you can’t see are the the birds circling the building at all hours. Picture perfect.

Fun fact – the blue mosque gets its name from the gorgeous tiles that fill the inside domes.  One more – it’s the only mosque (in Turkey at least) with six minarets (the towers around the circumfrence).

So this one isn’t all blue, but you can see the patterns we found everywhere. Let me know if you find a place that sells these for kitchen backsplash…

If you’re not picking up on it yet, this building, both inside and out was absolutely one of the highlights of my trip.  Having it as the backdrop to so many wonderful moments was a treat, so if you are going to Turkey anytime soon, don’t miss it.  Or better yet, make sure your hotel is in Sultanahmet and looks out on it.

Our every evening in Istanbul. Highly recommend Hotel Sari Konak. The breakfast! We will get to the post I dedicate entirely to breakfast in Turkey.

turkey – a teeny tiny preview…

I’m back!  And while I have much to say about this vacation, many photos to share, and plenty of unsolicited advice to give to anybody looking at traveling to/around Turkey, because I’m super jet-lagged and craving a run around the new hood, I thought I’d share just a few of my favorite photos.  Much more to come.

Fresh off the plane we fell in love with our hotel’s rooftop deck immediately. You can see the beautiful Bosphorus in the background.

 

Inside the courtyard of the Blue Mosque with our tour guide. You can absolutely go it alone, but he was entertaining and I had so much fun negotiating with him for the sell. Blue Mosque was hands-down my favorite part of Istanbul (if you aren’t counting all the Turkish Towels)

 

What can I say? I like to live on the edge… here I am breaking into the city of Istanbul Constantinople. Were it 1000 or so years ago…

Doing what we did best… house wine, mezes and backgammon. Still high on our trip to France last summer, I would say the one of the (very few) downfalls of the trip that I absolutely should have anticipated was the lack of good wine. The coffee on the other hand…

PS. European jet-lag is the best kind. I have gotten so much done today and it’s 8:15am.  Next up, bedside tables.

Oh what a week

I am feeling all at once exhausted, stressed, and excited.  It has been an insane week; from a quick trip to the Bay for the Walk and some love to moving to prepping the condo to rent to interviews (I’m hiring not being hired) to selling a house to prepping for Turkey (kind of) to emceeing our grad program’s anniversary celebration to thinking the house was being broken into at 3am and calling the cops (another story for another day) to the Backstreet Boys (you heard me) – just absolutely insane.  

I’m so ready for this trip, and I’m so not ready for this trip.  Semi-packed and semi-planned with the scare of a missing passport last night just to keep things interesting.  

The good news… I’ve gotten a ton of recs from some well-traveled folks with good taste, so I think we’ll be fine.  Additional recommendations always welcome though.

Wish us luck!