After taking four modes of transport from the airport into the city, we arrived at our hostel in Sultanahmet hot and hungry!! We ventured out to find some of the cheap and delicious Turkish cuisine we’d heard about, but after reading multiple menus and being swamped by restaurant hustlers, we still couldn’t find what we were after ( and later learnt it didn’t exist in expensive and touristy Istanbul!). With rumbling stomachs we settled on a nice looking restaurant and had delicious food, with vegetables!!!- pity about the price tag!

The Blue Mosque was on the agenda the next morning, which was close to our hostel. It’s a huge and beautiful mosque, and we were excited to be going inside to see all these blue tiles. However the mood was ruined by the security yelling to people at the door ‘hurry up, hurry up’ while they were trying to take their shoes off. I was told off inside for showing my shoulders – my t-shirt had slipped up my arm. So not quite the experience we had anticipated, but still very beautiful inside. The huge buildings in Istanbul are incredible, especially when built so long ago ( similar to Rome), but these have a different feel to them, one of grandeur, with each sultan trying to outdo the last (or outdo the buildings in Rome).

The hippodrome, a rectangular arena now a boulevard, where sultans and political parties use to race chariots, at times leading to riots and the possible downfall of the sultan in power at the time. Each sultan tried to outdo the last in decorating the hippodrome, and hence we saw the old Egyptian Obelisk of Theodosius

Racing to beat the line into the Cistern was worth it. It’s a huge chamber (65m x 143m) with 336 pillars and built in 532 AD. It was lit by many carefully placed artificial lights so was very different to the cistern we saw in Morocco which was about 1/3 the size with a single beam of light from a vault in the roof.
It was pretty awesome, the cool air was a welcomed contrast to the hot sun outside and Scott had a field day with his photography.

Next stop was the Grand Bazaar, a large covered market selling most things you don’t need (leather, gold, pottery, spices, sweet, carpets, clothes, linen). One thing we did need by then was a coffee, so we found a great looking Turkish cafe and ordered a very nice tasting latte and got the bill for a very nice 17 lira (NZ$12). Big oops! (At least it tasted good!)

We zigzagged through the streets and traffic to the spice bazaar which had the most amazing aroma (compared to the spice markets in India, Dubai, Morocco I thought the smell was great!). We bought some yummy rose Turkish Delight then escaped the crowds to the New Mosque on the water front by Galata bridge. It was a lot more peaceful than the Blue Mosque without the tourists and the inside design definitely rivalled it, so we enjoyed this mosque a lot more.

Crossing Galata Bridge, we dodged hundreds of people fishing ( I won’t call them fisherman), with large fishing rods nearly the size of surf casters, catching hundreds of tiny fish the size my middle finger. We weren’t sure if they were for food or bait ( likely the former) but decided against ordering a fresh fish dinner from the side of the Bosphorus.

The streets over the other side ( still on the European side), were narrow and steep, with lots of boutique shops, art, and cafes, as well as the usual souviner shops. We were lucky to climb the Galata tower at about 7.45pm when the sun was setting, getting great views across to Topaki Palace and the mosques.