Days 1-2: Arrival

Our flight left late Friday night and we arrived Saturday evening in Istanbul, Turkey. Our hotel had arranged a transfer for us from the airport, so we found the people holding the sign with our name on it, and soon we were arriving at Tash Konak hotel in Sultanahmet (Old Town) district of the city.After checking in and showering, we went out to get dinner and explore the city a bit. We also had our first (but certainly not last) feral cat sighting:

We ate at Can Restaurant, which was a cafeteria-style restaurant.After dinner, we walked across the street to the Hippodrome and rested on a bench for some time, enjoying the sights of the city.Here I am though I can't remember why we took this picture!
We made it back to the hotel and tried to go to bed. It was Saturday night, and our window overlooked a street that appeared to be out of the way and not busy. But looks can be deceiving!

There was so much noise! Brian joked that an Angry Men's Arguing Club was convening outside, as what sounded like heated conversations (in Turkish, so we couldn't be sure) took place until the early morning hours. There were also many car horns, cat fights, and other assorted noises.

We decided that drivers in Istanbul were the most extreme that we'd ever seen. Both of the guidebooks we used (Lonely Planet and Rick Steves) made sure to mention that pedestrians never have an assumed right of way. Honking car horns were so prevalent we wondered if somehow the gas pedals are rigged so as to emit a horn beep at regular intervals.

Though the street our hotel was on was not very busy, it was quite curvy and narrow. Back home, if such a street existed, it would probably be no parking, one way only, and with a speed limit of 15. Here, there were cars parked on both sides, traffic coming from both directions, and, though I'm not sure of the official speed limit, cars were traveling much faster than 15!

Instead of driving slowly and making sure a car was not approaching around the corner from another direction, drivers beep to let other cars know to stay out of their way. And that's why we were woken up several times every hour by car horns -- every single car that drove by honked!

This just added to the charm of the city, though, and provided us with jokes and laughter during our stay. We did ask to be moved to an inside room, but were told they were all full. We just took Benadryl to help us sleep the nights when it was too warm to have the windows shut, and wound up having a delightful stay.

Day 3: Hagia Sophia & Archaeology Museum

On our first full day in Istanbul, we ate breakfast at our hotel and then headed out for some sightseeing. And, what do we come across, but the finish line of the Istanbul Marathon and 15K! Had we known, we would have tried to do the 15K.There is so much history in Istanbul. It was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for close to 1,000 years, and then it was the capital of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 500 more. Remnants of its past glory are everywhere!

Take, for example, this pillar:
Our destination was Hagia Sophia, though getting there was a bit more challenging than anticipated due to the race course. Incidentally, this great structure was the catalyst for our trip to Istanbul. It plays a role in one of my favorite books, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

The outside:From this viewpoint, if we swiveled 180 degrees, we had a view of the impressive Blue Mosque (visited later in the trip).
Relaxing on a bench, enjoying the day:I was reading about what to expect in Hagia Sophia:Renovations have been going on for decades and are very slowly progressing, hence the scaffolding on the left side of this picture:Hagia Sophia was originally a cathedral under the Byzantines (Eastern Romans) and then turned into a mosque under the Ottomans. In the 1930s, it was transformed again, this time into a museum.Because of its history, Christian and Muslim symbols are present.It's a bit hard to see, but this pigeon had entered the museum and is perched on a metal beam:Still tired from our trip, we spent a fair amount of time watching him fly around.

Outside was a frieze of sheep from the Byzantine period:After our visit and just in time to soak the 4+ hour marathoners, it started to rain. Prior to leaving for Istanbul, we'd checked the weather and rain was predicted for every day. W e lucked out, as this was the only rain we'd face our entire trip.

Umbrellas were everywhere and I was amazed at how quickly all of the street vendors were selling them! Since we are not made of sugar and find walking down narrow streets to be quite unwieldy with an umbrella, we just quickened our pace and walked on.
The Archaeology Museum was our destination:As you can imagine, the historical artifacts we saw were amazing. Brian is looking at some stelae:
We never made it over to the ancient ruins of Troy, but this museum had a replica of the Trojan Horse:The Archaeology Museum is housed in several buildings; in between buildings, we stopped for some refreshments:Whenever we purchased a drink in a can (i.e. soda, juice), we were given a straw.

Back inside, I posed next to many different ancient carvings:
I think this lion may have been my favorite piece:
Famished, we headed over to lunch. Outside of the restaurant (right along the marathon course):We spent the rest of the day walking around, soaking up the city. Dinner was eaten at a nondescript and disappointing restaurant. We didn't even think to take a picture!

Exhausted, we returned to our room. Since it wasn't as hot as the night before, we were able to close the window and get a better night's sleep as the Angry Men's Arguing Club's noises were muffled.

Day 4: Bosphorus Cruise

Monday, like all of our days in Istanbul, started with the hotel's breakfast. Here's Brian helping himself at the buffet:And our plates full of food. The yogurt was so delicious!
The room where we ate breakfast was on the top floor of the building, allowing for spectacular views:
We particularly enjoyed watching the interaction among the seagulls!

Back in our room, Brian double-checked details of our day:We were going on a Bosphorus cruise, so we headed out towards the Bosphorus Strait, which is the connector between the Sea of Marmara and The Black Sea.

We got there a bit early, so we waited at the harbor, enjoying the views and walking around a bit:

On this bridge, you can see people fishing on top and restaurants underneath:Off to the left in this picture, you can see a giant cruise ship that is docked. Pretty much every day, a different large cruise ship was docked there. I can't even imagine trying to cram all of Istanbul into one day -- a week was even too short!This is the boat that would take us almost to the Black Sea and back (not exactly environmentally friendly!):Some views from the ship:

This large building is the Istanbul Modern Art Museum, which we would visit later in our trip:

Though we didn't get any of them on camera, as we were setting off, we saw dolphins jumping out of the water! We pointed them out to the Australians sitting near us, but they weren't too impressed as it's a frequent occurrence in their homeland. Juxtaposition of new and old, a common theme here:Also, of rich:And poor:A far view of the Black Sea:Hard to believe that so many battles have taken place in an area that was so peaceful the day of our visit.

This castle on top of the hill was our destination: As the ship was docking, competing restaurants tried to attract attention and draw lunchers:A bit hard to see, but jellyfish! One of our guidebooks stated that very few people swim in the Bosphorus due to the prevalence of jellyfish and garbage.So many seagulls!So many cats!As we only had a few hours at this stop, it was unlikely we'd have enough time to eat a sit down lunch and trek to the castle ruins on the hill. We stopped at a bakery and bought a picnic lunch to eat near the castle.The trek up was very steep, but we made it!Lunch with a view: I explored some of the abandoned parts of the castle. However, they were full of garbage and smelled bad, so I didn't spend much time there.More incredible views:A camoflagued butterfly:This map gives an idea of the climb we made to get to the top:We returned to sea level, and had some time until the boat departed. We stopped at a nearby restaurant for a beer and relaxation:The boat returned us to Istanbul, and we headed to the Galata Tower. View from the top:This ladder store's method of advertising its wares seemed possibly dangerous and certainly unlucky as the ladders blanketed the sidewalk: Crossing the bridge, back to our side of town:In the setting sun, we saw the aquaduct in the background, reminding us once again of Istanbul's Roman past:We stopped in a British pub for a quick drink (are we in Istanbul or London?):A carpet salesman stopped us on our way to dinner and offered to take us back to his factory to show us how to buy a carpet. We declined! But, as we were talking to him, we saw one of the many stray cats jump into a nearby tree:The birds aren't safe anywhere!

We ate dinner at Doy Doy, a restaurant near our hotel with a rooftop terrace and an amazing view of the Blue Mosque:Light on vegetarian options, we had cheese pide, Turkish pizza:After dinner, we returned to our hotel.