I arrived at the Istanbul airport at 9am and after lining up for nearly an hour to go through immigration I officially entered the country, grabbed my bag and headed to the metro to make my way to the hotel. Taking the metro was a fun experience and after taking two trains I eventually ended up at the station I needed to be at about 45 minutes later. Then the fun part of finding the hotel began. I thought it would be easy to find the hotel when I was looking at the google map in Delhi but the streets turned out to be much smaller than I expected and almost no street signs visible. After wandering around for 5 minutes I finally figured out where I was and from there I made it to my hotel where they were waiting with my mom's reservation, success.
Once I was settled into my hotel I decided to wander around the streets of Istanbul for a bit as I had a few hours to kill before my mom arrived at the hotel to join me. I walked pretty aimlessly through the streets of Istanbul and saw a few impressive sights from the outside, I waited until mom arrived to enter them as I was sure she would want to see them as well, also I didn't know what they were at the time as I was a bit disorientated. After eating a delicious donair I returned to the hotel for a short nap and to await my mom's arrival. I was awoken in the middle of the afternoon to my mom's arrival, yay. It was great to see her again after saying goodbye to her eight months ago in Calgary. we remained in the hotel for an hour or so organizing things and I got some items that mom brought out for me, including my new Nikon D-60 camera which I was pretty happy to get. We then proceeded to wander around Istanbul for the rest of the afternoon and early evening before getting an early dinner and heading to bed as we were both fairly tired: mom from jet lag and me from not sleeping much on my overnight flight.
The second day in Istanbul we got up and were greeted with a great breakfast from our hotel, well at least it would be great if it didn't contain so many olives but what can you do. After breakfast we headed out from the hotel to take in some of Istanbul's famous sights. First we stopped at the Hippodrome which is a square just outside of the Blue Mosque and contains 3 pillars that were placed here a long time ago (I can't remember the age). The three pillars here are pretty unique as one was brought from Egypt and contains hieroglyphs carved on the four sides and at the base there was also a carved story about how they brought it over from Egypt and erected it, although mom and I couldn't decipher it. Another pillar was a short pillar made of spiralled iron (although the top of it had been pillaged long ago) and the last pillar was a tall square pillar built of stone right there. After examining the pillars in the Hippodrome we headed across the street to enter the famous Blue Mosque and proceeded to enter the huge building. The interior of the mosque was fabulous and all of the tiles on the inside (and outside) are have a slightly bluish tinge which is why it is called the blue mosque. The huge dome that towered over us was spectacular and help up with four enormous pillars and everywhere around the room were lights suspended by cables hanging down from the ceiling. The only thing that detracted from the experience were the hordes of other tourists there, I guess it's getting to be high tourist season in Istanbul o well. After exiting the Blue Mosque we walked a bit away and took some nice pictures of its exterior complete with the six minarets.
After the Blue Mosque we crossed the street to see Hagia Sophia, a church that was converted to a mosque and is now a museum. The building isn't too much of a museum but it's open just so that you can explore it's really beautiful architecture and see some old murals. The building is extremely huge and very open inside, although when we were there they were repairing part of the dome so a huge scaffold was erected in the middle of the room. The interior was very graceful and beautiful and wandering around looking at the murals and just the size of the building was amazing. After the Hagia Sophia we took a quick walk through the Basilica Cistern, which is one of the oldest cisterns (underground water storage tank) ın Istanbul. The cistern is huge when you enter it as there are over 300 columns supporting the roof and the area is 132 meters long by 65 meters wide. One of the main attractions of the cistern other than the sheer size of it are two Medusa heads that are carved into the base of two columns in one corner. The two Medusa stones are carved at odd angles, one upside down while the other is sideways, this is believed to ward off evil spirits. The cistern is a very interesting walk through as it's eerily lit and water still occasionally drips from the ceiling to land on the path.
The afternoon was devoted to wandering around two of the main bazaars in Istanbul: the grand bazaar and the spice bazaar. First we started off wandering through the huge maze that was the grand bazaar. Inside here you can get anything that you want (or so ıt seemed) as there were complete aisles dedicated to clothes, lights, carpets, jewelry, and more. Not only are there shops in the bazaar but there are countless tea cafes (complete with waiters running between shops selling tea to the shop owners, very cool to see), fountains, police offices and even a mosque. It's a really interesting experience to wander through this huge bazaar and completely different to any market I saw in Asia so it was enjoyable. After the grand bazaar we headed up to the spice bazaar to walk along it's smaller streets. Here, as the name suggests, are most of the shops selling the different spices common in Turkey with all of the shops displaying the spices in huge piles. However not only spices are sold here as there seemed to be everything from souvenirs to Turkish Delights and although it's not as big as the grand bazaar it's still interesting. Finally we visited Suleymaniye Mosque which is supposed to be the second best mosque in Istanbul after the Blue mosque. However when we were there the mosque was undergoing major restoration so we couldn't see much of it. All that we were able to see was the exterior of the tombs of Süleyman and his wife, Roxelana.
The next day we started off touring Topkapi Palace which has been turned into a museum to exhibit the palace and artifacts from the sultans who used to live there. The palace is a large complex complete with several courtyards and many fabulous rooms for the sultans. In addition to the beautifully decorated rooms the palace had several areas with fantastic views over the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn (2 bodıes of water, rivers, in Istanbul). Along side of that was the treasury which was really a museum containing valuable artifacts that the sultans owned and items belonging to some of the prophets, including Moses' staff.
After wandering through the palace for the a few hours we headed out to the Golden Horn to take an afternoon ferry ride up it to Eyup. The ferry ride was quite nice in itself as it was a refreshing way to see Istanbul. Arriving at Eyup we proceeded to check out the Eyup mosque which is apparently the fourth most important mosque in the world, then we took a cable car ride up to the top of a graveyard for great views of Istanbul before walking back down. After visiting Eyup for a couple of hours we returned back down the Golden Horn just as the sun was starting to set, a great experience.
Our third day in Istanbul was spent taking a 5 hour boat cruise up the Bosphorus to the furthest North part of Istanbul and pretty much the Black Sea. Along the way to the final destination we passed several beautiful Istanbul homes and saw where the rich of Istanbul probably live. Arriving at the end of the ferry line we were able to climb a small hill to reach an old fortress with great views of the Bosphorus and out to the Black Sea. After returning to the main part of Istanbul we headed up to Taksim Square and started to walk back down towards the Golden Horn. This is the part of Istanbul where most of the nightlife occurs and we stopped along one of the side streets that was composed of just bars and restaurants pouring out into the streets for a beer. The atmosphere here was quite nice it was absolutely packed with people, mostly locals, all enjoying an evening beer.
Our fourth day ın Istanbul was also our last, we didn't get a chance to see anything as after we got up and had breakfast in our hotel we had to leave for the airport. After another adventure on the Istanbul metro system we arrived at the airport and boarded our flight to Ezrurem in the eastern part of Turkey. Arriving in Ezrurem we quickly found a bus to take us to Kars, our next destination.
A view of the Blue Mosque.
One of the frescoes in Hagia Sophia, this is one of the better preserved ones but they were all pretty good.
A view down one of the rows between the columns in the Basilica Cistern.
The sideways Medusa head at the bottom of one of the columns in the Basilica Cistern.
Mom enjoying a cup of Çay (tea), the national drink, in the grand bazaar.
Mom and myself standing at a beautiful view point in the Topkapi Palace. The Golden Horn is visible in the background.
A shot of the hundreds of fishermen fishing off of the Galata bridge at sunset.
The old fortress that we took a ferry to up the Bosphorus.
Mom sitting on an old wall at the old fortress with the Bosphorus joining the Black Sea in the background.
The street scene near Taksim Square where mom and I enjoyed a beer on our final night in Istanbul.
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