Well, this will be the first blog of a few on our wonderful trip to Istanbul. First, I would strongly recommend traveling there if you have the opportunity. We were there for 5 days and only saw one section of Istanbul. There was so much we didn't see! I guess we'll have to go to Turkey again!
We arrived at about 4:00PM and checked into our hotel. The Hotel Historia was once an Ottoman Mansion. It was small and a little quirky but I would stay there again. The staff was wonderful, the breakfast was awesome and the room was clean so all was good. The hotel was also about 2-3 blocks away from many tourist attractions so walking was easy!
Our first night we realized that our Euros wouldn't work so we went in search of a cash machine for Turkish Lira. The first one we found was out of money so we had to look around a lot. This is when we got our first look at the Blue Mosque.
Once we found the bank machine we were off in search of dinner! We got stopped by a man asking if we wanted information about Istanbul and rugs. Little did we know we were in for a lesson about Carpets! We now know why Turkish Carpets are the best in the world. They are also VERY expensive. It was difficult to politely get out of the carpet shop! We also found that like many European cities it is common to see men outside of restaurants wanting you to look at their menu and make deals for dinner. We found one particular place that looked good and the "greeter" was nice. He also called Janna "Princess" and gave her a lollipop.
Here are pictures of our meal and Janna's treat. (Little did we know, pretty much EVERYONE called her
Princess!!!)
The waiter in the picture above brought this out for the table next to us. It was a clay pot that had fire all around it. He covered the top with foil and a rag, flipped it over and tapped around the ring at the bottom of the pot. It promptly broke and he put what was inside on their plates. Tim called this the original "dutch oven".
Above is Delaney's meatballs. The long green things are these really mild roasted green peppers that I thought were really tasty. The rest of the family didn't like them.
I had the shepherds plate. Rice in the middle, tomato based sauce on lamb, beef and chicken. Cooked on a steal wok like pan. Yes, it was good!
Tim's lamb stew was quite good as well. The waiter said they only served traditional Kurdish food.
Princess Janna and her lollipop.
The next morning we went back to the Blue Mosque to take a look around. The tourist buses were already there. We saw people from all around the world! This mosque was finished in 1616 and was created to calm God after the war with Persia. It is called the blue mosque because of the hand painted blue ceramic tiles covering the walls inside. Since this was still an active mosque people were asked to be quiet, take off their shoes and women had to cover their heads. We expected this and so we had brought our own scarves. It was very crowded as well.
It wasn't raining but it was misty and foggy.
We went through the gates and the mosque just seemed to get bigger and bigger!
When we went into the courtyard and had to wait in line a little bit.
After we took off our shoes and Delaney, Janna and I covered our heads this was one of the first things we saw.
These pictures don't truly show you how HUGE the mosque is! The domed ceilings were almost fully tiled. I couldn't stop looking up. It was truly beautiful.
Here we are all covered up.
Tim and the girls.
This was a really neat tree we saw just outside the mosque. We found that there are many of these hollowed out trees. They look like they are burned inside. I bet the are beautiful when the have leaves.
Across from the Blue Mosque is the famous Hagia Sophia. We went there the next day. This will be our next post!
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