Istanbul Was Constantinople...

...anyone remember that song?  Or ever heard that song?  I sang it the entire weekend and annoyed Drew to no end.  Sorry not sorry.

Anyway...we went to Istanbul for a long bank holiday this past weekend!  (Now a week and a half ago.)  It was awesome.  I think I naively believed that due to it's location and bordering countries (Syria, Iraq, Iran), this place would be an uber conservative strict religious Muslim city, with maybe a little bit of Arabian Nights/Aladdin mixed in.  But in reality, it was a secular, liberal, humongous city just like any other large European city, but with a little additional Muslim/Ottoman flair.  Everyone spoke English.  The people were friendly but would do anything to make a buck off of you (or steal a buck off of you).  The food was amazing.  The sites were old and beautiful.  It was slightlyless easy to get around but I think that's due to the size of the city and the size of the Bosphorus Strait that runs through the different parts.

Don't know where Istanbul or Turkey is?  I didn't really either.  It's east of Bulgaria and Greece, west of...the Middle East.  Istanbul is in the top left part of the country, and half of it's on the European continent and the rest of the city/country is on the continent of Asia.

Super brief history of Istanbul: founded around 660 BC as Byzantium.  Became Constantinople in 330 AD.  Major player in history as it was the capital of 4 huge empires: the Roman Empire (330-395), the Byzantine Empire (395-1204 and then 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (1204-1261), and the gigantic Ottoman Empire (1453-1922).  It was Christian during the Roman and Byzantium times and then the Ottomans conquered it and turned it into an "Islamic stronghold" - though a pretty religiously tolerant one, for awhile.  That's all I got.

So we went this weekend to see the sites, eat the food, and enjoy the city.  Another one of our couple friends from Dublin, Micah and Jeff, were going the same weekend so we hung out with them most of the time, which was an added bonus!  Here are some pics - may have to do this in two parts.

We flew Turkish Airlines and I would HIGHLY recommend it.  If they give me headphones, Turkish Delight upon take off, free booze, and a choice of two DELICIOUS Turkish airplane meals, I love you!

We had a disastrous time at the airport getting through customs and finding our baggage, plus  a disastrous time at our hotel having to change hotels for the night, but we finally relaxed at dinner at Armedros with some lamb and the best aubuergine mash I've ever tasted.

Despite the horrible mix-up the first night and rude owner, we liked our hotel and they had a RIDICULOUS rooftop breakfast spread every morning.  Yum yum.

Us outside the Blue Mosque.  

This is one of the main tourist attractions here - it's still a working mosque, built between 1609 and 1616.

If you didn't bring your own head scarf to cover your head and shoulders, and knees, they've give you one.  You also had to take your shoes off, so the entire place smelled like feet.  Beautiful inside though!!

We also visited the Basilica Cistern  This is the largest of the old cisterns that provided water to the city, built in the 6th century.  It's basically a huge, dark, underground creepy...area, surrounded by ancient columns and water.  This picture was taken with my night time setting but it was really verrrrrry dark.

They also discovered two huge statues of Medusa's head hidden in the corners of the cistern back in the day.  I wouldn't like to be there to discover/excavate it.

We then went to the Grand Bazaar - a huge indoor market full of Turks selling clothes, jewelry, pottery, rugs, and anything else you could want.

I got a pretty necklace and some bright colored bowls.  Cool!

This is the entrance to Topkapi Palace, the former palace of all the Sultans during the Ottoman Empire.  I believe it was used as a residence up until 1922!  If you've ever been to the Alhambra in Granada, Spain...it was a lot like that.

We crossed part of the Bosphorus Strait to the Beyoglu hood/part of the city.  It's a lot more urban and not as "old town" as the Sultanahmet area where we stayed.  This is Galata Tower, a medieval stone fort built in the 1300s.

We hit up some rooftop bars before our fancy dinner at Mikla.

Gorgeous views!

Cheers!

Sunset.

Mikla had a gorgeous rooftop terrace and I tried to get some pictures of Sultanahmet across the river and the moon.  This is what came out due to user error...but I kinda like it.

Great first days in Istanbul - I'll post more about the rest of our trip tomorrow!