Istanbul, Turkey - April 8th - 12th 2009

And here we are. We finally made it to Istanbul.
Thursday we took the shuttle downtown and overdid it as usual. So little time, so much to see. And line-ups! I think we quite forgot that it was Easter weekend and the tourists were out in full force (never mind that we were two of them!).
We started at the Blue Mosque - check this site out for more fantastic photos -
http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=Blue+Mosque,+Istanbul&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=V6LkSZ32OMmM_QbIm6GiCQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title
Then of course this site for all the facts and figures -http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/istanbul-blue-mosque.htmOur next stop was Aya Sophia or Hagia Sophia where we also hired a guide which was well worth it. Not only did we move to the front of the line, Ibrahim also explained things that we would have just glanced over. I am sure it helped that he was a retired teacher. We really enjoyed our tour.
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/istanbul-hagia-sophia.htm
Next was the Cistern, with 336 marble columns and more as you can find out here -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_Cistern
Lunch was truly a find. We happened upon a restaurant that is apparently famous among travellers and readers of the Lonely Planet travel guide. The Pudding Shop was reknown in the 60's as a meeting and/or message point. This site explains it all -
http://www.puddingshop.com/Pudding_Shopx.html
p.s. the food was excellent and very Turkish.
The next several hours were spent at the Topkapi Palace. I have never seen so much gold and so many jewels in one place. Can you believe an 86 carat diamond? -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topkap%C4%B1_Palace
and for more photos -http://www.pbase.com/dosseman/topkapiand more to come later.
Meanwhile, we were to meet Curtis and Itir in Taksim for dinner. First they took us to the British Embassy to meet some friends for a drink, then on to the Rejans Restaurant for a lovely meal. It is a Russian restaurant hidden in one of the side streets of Taksim, that we would never have found by ourselves. It was an excellent dinner and we had such a great time catching up.

Friday we resumed our marathon. Our first stop was the Topkapi Palace, since we hadn't managed to see everything the first time. This time we managed to make it to the Harem too -
http://www.msadventuresinitaly.com/blog/2009/03/03/visit-a-harem-imperial-harem-in-topkapi-palace-istanbul-turkey/On to the Grand Bazaar. How we managed to find our way out again simply amazes me! -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Bazaar,_Istanbuland for more photos -
http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=Grand+Bazaar,+Istanbul&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=t7HkSdf4OcXM-AabgcmSCQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title

On Saturday, we had a boat tour on the Bosphorus -http://www.pbase.com/andrys/bosphorus
We did well with the buses and found our way near to where Curtis and Itir live. Curtis picked us up and we went over to their place for a visit. I finally got to meet Isabel. What a cutie. She is very smart and switched between Turkish and English depending on who she was talking to. She is very active, but did manage to sit for a few minutes and colour. We also met Itir's Mom who is lovely. She helped Itir with dinner and we were treated to a traditional Turkish menu. Itir is very sweet and emailed me the names of what we had -
Starters -Cerkez Tavugu (Circassian Chicken)
Karniyarik (Eggplant Stuffed with Lamb)
Kirmali Borek (Borek with Minces Meat)
Main Course -
Hunkar Begendi (Sultan's Delight)
Desserts -
Keskul (Ottoman Style Almond Pudding)
Revani (Semolina Cake)
We were very spoiled and had a lovely evening.

Sunday morning had us up at the crack of dawn, which at least meant that we were back in Kouklia by noon, and starting back on the social treadmill by going out for lunch with friends.
A lovely way to end a very interesting albeit busy holiday.
Love,
Laurel and Dale