Istanbul

While planning our trip to Chisinau, Istanbul was always part of our plans.  Finally we arrived in Istanbul on May 30th.   We stayed at the Hali Hotel which was a small hotel not far from the Blue Mosque in the Sultanamet district.  Our first stop was the Blue Mosque.

When we arrived, a nice young  man showed us the tourist entrance and proceeded to follow us inside the mosque.  He was trying to convince Bob to visit his father's carpet shop.  Bob assured him we would not follow him to the shop.  The young man was mad and said, "You are  not God" and stormed off.   After that, it was hard to trust people who were just trying to help.

There were lots of tourists visiting the Blue Mosque where females cover their heads and all visitors take off their shoes and place them into a plastic bag they give you.  You carry your shoes around with you.   When we came out of the mosque the "Call to prayer" began.  Also, every other mosque started a call to prayer and it gets quite loud.  First call to prayer, 5:30 am daily.

Ate dinner on a rooftop terrace with a view of the Blue Mosque.  The food in Istanbul was delicious.  The eggplant was excellent.

I bought a new purse at the Grand Bazaar.  Enjoying my new purse while waiting for the ultimate Turkish experience, the hookah or some would say, "Giant Bong".

Hookah's are part of the menu in many coffee shops.  They use dried apple with charcoal for the smoke. It had a mild apple taste.  Bob had the Turkish coffee and liked it very much.

The next night we saw a Turkish Whirling Dervish performance.  It was very interesting and I don't have any photos.

Went to Topkapi Palace where this Palace marching band was colorful and exotic.  Fun.

Each musical instrument section had a different costume.

We took a ferry boat trip up the Bosphorus strait where the Black Sea connects to the Mediterranean Sea.  We stopped in a small fishing village, Anadolu Kavagi that seemed to be mainly restaurants and just a few fishing boats.  

Here are some of the restaurants.  It was a very pretty place on the Asian side of the straits.  Now I can say I have been to Asia.

We ate a nice fish lunch at one of these restaurants.

Our last day in Istanbul we visited the "New District" and had coffee at this historic restaurant/coffee shop.  The new district seemed older than the historic district.

Overall we had fun.  Istanbul is a unique and exotic place.  We enjoyed some Turkish experiences and the food was delicious.  There are 13+ million people in Istanbul and I am sure there are some who are not carpet salesmen.  The pressure to spend money is very  high and not only for carpets.  Salesmen (we only saw men) say things to you as you walk down the street, "Let me help you spend your money" or  "It's your turn to help me make some money" and those were pretty amusing.  Most, however, are very eager to help if you show even the slightest interest in their products.   Oh, did I mention I bought two purses?

Next trip, Romania on June 12th.  Bob will visit the place where his grandfather and grandmother were born.

Beth