With spirits soaring as high as our airplane, we arrived to Istanbul. After seeing the massive city from the airplane, we were ready to explore! Ahead was an amazing week of discovery, friends, and food!
For our first few days, we stayed at an awesome hostel just minutes from the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace. Aside from being a perfect home-base for seeing the historic and spiritual sites of the cultural center of Istanbul, we also met many incredible people there. Friends from the hostel took us to secret restaurants, guided us through Topkapi Palace (providing valuable insight into Islam), explored Dolmabahce Palace with us, and wandered the bazaars to find spices etc. We had a great time getting to know these folks and we really hope to cross paths again on future travels.
It is hard to pick a favorite, but we will never forget the Hagia Sophia (and Gli, the cat who lives there), a beautiful museum and a masterpiece of Byzantine architecture. The museum was previously a massive Greek Orthodox church, then was converted to a mosque after the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans. The architecture was considered so beautiful that most of the major mosques in the city imitate the style. The mosques are equally memorable – both the outside and inside of all we visited were stunning – clearly very special places. In addition, the opulence of the grand Dolmabahce Palace had us exchanging shocked glances with each stairway, chandelier, and room we passed. No pictures were allowed in the palace, but this palace nearly bankrupted the Ottoman empire; it’s seriously impressive. As we arrived to the palace, a parade marched in. The palace gardens were also the location of a turkey sighting! On the completely opposite end of the artistic spectrum, we paid the modern art museum a visit on a rainy day.
In addition to the architecture and museums, the food did not disappoint. Turkey produces tons of eggplants, and is famous for Turkish coffee. It is a wonder that we had time to see so much of the city considering how often we were stopping to taste baklava, fresh juice, lentil soup, traditional stuffed potatoes, Turkish breakfast, fish sandwiches, and Yemeni food!
Istanbul is an amazing city, especially rich in history and culture. We only scratched the surface, and Turkey is definitely on our list for a return trip.
