Tunisia: December 2011

Wow, what a trip! We decided to go to Istanbul, Turkey for our Turkey day this year, it only seemed fitting. Many staff members had been to Istanbul and everyone spoke so highly of it. We flew out early afternoon and arrived into Turkey at 5pm. We were greeted with winter. Simon is convinced that he can continue to wear his shorts everyday that is a non-work day. Not in Turkey. We quickly changed, after finding our hostel, into our winter clothes, Under Armour, puffy jackets, hats, and gloves. We practically stumbled upon our hostel. We had taken the time to write the directions down before we left but conveniently thought each other grabbed them. Luckily we had both looked at the map of its location and were some how able to find it among the thousands of other hotels.

The first night we spent just wondering around the huge city, about 17 million people, near our hostel. We knew the next day we would be taking a tour. Most of the large historical places were very near to our hostel. Most of them closed in the evening, but are viewable from the outside.

Hagia Sofia, fourteen hundred years old, was built by the East Roman Empire as church. In 1453 it was turned into a Mosque by Sultan Mehmed II following the conquest of Istanbul in 1453. Today it is a museum.

Blue Mosque- Is the largest Mosque in Turkey. It was built right next to the Hagia Sophia to make a statement, saying that he, the Sultan in 1609, could also build a Mosque of the same beauty.

Friday morning we decided to be real tourists and do a boat and bus tour for the day. It was the only real way to get to see the city. The first part was on the boat. We caught the boat in what is known as the Golden Horn, the water that divides the European side of Istanbul. We then worked our way up the Bosphorus, which connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea. The Bosphorus also divides Istanbul, Asia is on one side and Europe on the other. The European side is where old town Istanbul is located, and where tourists spend all their time. After the boat we did a city tour, which was completely on the European side even though bridges also connect the two continents together.

The view from the top of what our tour boat looked like.

Looking back on Old town Istanbul from the water.

The Bosphorus bridge which joins Asia and Europe.

Fortress along the Bosphorus.

A picture of us when we are standing on the top of the Maiden Tower, which is its own little island. Dad you may recognize the Island it was in the James Bond film, "The World is not Enough," it was a prison.

Yes of course I had to get pooped on, good thing I was wearing my rain pants.

Once we were back on land the bus took us to a lookout area, which was on the top of the largest cemetery in Istanbul, all people that are buried are facing towards Mecca.

Picture of us from that lookout area.

After our day on the bus and boat. We had an hour or two before the spice market closed. We had the bus drop us off so we could check out the word famous spice bazaar, which is still used for spice trade in Istanbul. It was a great place for some dried fruit, tea, and spices. We were even able to try some good cheese.

Saturday we spent our day touring the insides of the Mosques, going to the Grand Bazaar (which it looks like we didn't get any pictures of), and the palace (from the outside we got there too late to go inside, 3:30)