Istanbul Not Constantinople - Day 1

Bear with me, I have a lot of photos and really want to share them all. Believe it or not, this IS my narrowed down selection of pictures.

 At the Airport - on our way to Istanbul!

 I liked that Turkish Airlines had different seatbelt buckles.

 Wayne was remarking how he has this very strange feeling of embarrassment when eating on an airplane; that they bring us these tiny trays of food and we immediately start stuffing our faces. I told him, well, what's even worse is that I've scarfed down my meal, and now I'm stealing Norah's food because I thought it was so good. Anyway, I took this picture because I like the fact that they give you genuine silverware to eat with.

Our first feeling of welcome in Turkey was arriving in Istanbul at 11 pm only to find a 1-2 hour line for customs (passport stamp line). So, for some reason, I thought I might ask if they had a "family line" given the time, and that we had a two year old. A young man at the information desk gestured us to follow him and he led us straight to the First Class/Express line and allowed us to walk straight through! We were in complete disbelief and just hurried out of the airport before they changed their minds.

And then, less than a minute later, we walked outside looking for a taxi. There were crowds of people and a taxi queue with about 15 people waiting. A young man in charge of the line somehow caught our attention, gestured to us (seeing we were carrying a little one) and pulled us in front of the entire line of people waiting for taxis. We got in the very next one (while he held Norah so we could get our suitcases in the trunk).

 Ready on our first morning for a day of touring Istanbul. (We arrived at midnight the night before and had until 2:30 pm to tour around the city before catching our flight to Izmir) From Breakfast until 2:30 pm, we managed to see the Aya Sofya, the Blue Mosque (from outside), the Basilica Cisterns, have lunch in a café, buy Turkish Delight, see the Grand Bazaar and get lost in crowded streets on our way back to the hotel. It was a very productive half-day in Istanbul.

The hotel breakfast room had a flat-screen TV showing Turkish and Japanese (?) music videos so it was very hard to keep Norah's attention. Though, she did eat her body weight in watermelon and eggs.

Yes, the Magic Lamp Factory Outlet

Turkish Delight!

White Tourists in the Aphrodisiac store - "Hm...yes, I'll take half a kilo of this one. Honey would you like some of this green powder too?"

Spices and Turkish delight

For ablution (the washing of hands and feet)

The Park outside Topkapi Palace (next to the Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque)

We ate in a restaurant identical to this one, on our last night of the trip, in Istanbul. They call this "Nomadic Seating".

LINK: Hagia Sophia - Aya Sofya

Entering the Aya Sofya

The scale inside was like no building I have ever seen.

Mary above the altar, with stain-glass windows and Arabic symbols throughout.

The inside of the very center dome - looking up through the gargantuan chandelier.

 Build in the 500s by Emperor Justinianus - I read that it originally held the cities' water reserves (like a reservoir) and later fell into disrepair when it was mainly used as a dumping ground. When it was restored they found many corpses had been dumped here. No bother to us, they've been cleaned out and it was 15 degrees cooler down here on a very hot day.

In the farthest back corner of the Cisterns are two columns with these sideways (or upside down) Medusa heads at their bases. Odd to say the least.

 Having Roasted Corn outside the Basilica Cisterns - Norah really loves corn. :)

BEAUTIFUL mounds of Turkish Delight and Baklava!

 Lunch in Istanbul with our Turkish Tea (black tea is pronounced: Chai)

Norah made some friends at this café. The three waiters just adored her and chatted with her nearly the entire time.

You cannot escape the machine (McDonalds was directly across the street)

 

Norah entering the Grand Bazaar