Istanbul was UNBELIEVABLE!! I am not kidding. I had no idea what to expect, and maybe that is why I was so blown away by this city. 15 million people live in the city and it is packed. Everywhere you go there are people, no matter what time of day. I would walk down a crowded street at 5:00 pm and it was busy, then I would walk down the same street at 2:00 am and it was still just as busy. The people were so nice and they loved talking with us, especially when we would try to speak Turkish :) And the history… Istanbul’s history is incredible. To stand next to a building or a wall or a mosaic that was built thousands of years ago and try to imagine what life was like back then, is breath taking.
Again, we did everything… We went to the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Green Mosque, Ortakoy, we took a packed ferry to the Prince’s Islands, road in a horse drawn carriage around the island, spent a day on the Asian side of the city, sat by the water and drank tea, walked along the Bosphorus, tried Turkish coffee, read our fortunes in the coffee grounds, had dinner at the rooftop restaurants and drank and danced at the rooftop bars, saw the underground cistern, went on a day trip to Bursa where we spent time in an amazing little village, ate some of the very best ice cream I have ever had, baklava, turkish delight, lots of yogurt, lamb and olives, walked through the Spice Bazaar, the Grand Bazaar, Music Street, İstiklal, tried lots of new foods, had a massage, did hookah (yes, with my parents!!), played backgammon, bargained for a good deal here and there… It was all so so so much fun!! And we were so lucky to have my sister to help us with the language. Although, I think I picked it up pretty quick -- “ichi tana Efes” means “I’d like two beers” and “teşekkürler” means “thank you.” What more do you need to know?!
I hope that someday I get to go back. There is just something about this city...
I will have more pics on this website soon: http://paristanbul.tumblr.com/!!
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