Istanbul – Sampling of the day

I’ll write in greater detail on each of the things that I saw in a later post but I wanted to give you a sampling of what we saw as we toured Istanbul.

First off, I don’t know what I expected but I was certainly more than pleased with what I saw.  The city is very clean and offers a lot of modern transportation options. 

Today was a national holiday and the national flag was shown on a lot of buildings and hanging as banners.  The flags are the red banners with a star and a moon.  The guide explained the story of the flag, but I need to do some independent research to report the details.  All in all, it was a holiday for the country and the flag was proudly displayed everywhere.

We started off on the European side, and then crossed the bridge to the Asian side. I was thrilled to add a new continent to my list of visited ones.  The Asian side is mostly residential, looks clean and well kept.  The second photo shows the hotels and restaurants along the water.

We saw many beautiful mosques in the city.  We also stopped at Hagia Sophia and were able to tour inside as it is now a museum.  The street vendors were persistent, although not as aggressive as in Cairo. I practiced my negotiating skills and selected some scarves and bracelets.  The tour guide said to negotiate and be happy with your deal and DO NOT come back to the ship and compare bargains.  I can see why because I think that I made the best deal that any one could make and I would be crushed to meet the person who did better than I!!!

After the tour of the museum, we headed towards the Grand Bazaar.  We started at the intersection of Babiali Street and Nuruosmaniye Street.  Nuruosmaniye Street is a pedestrian walkway lined with shops and restaurants.  At the end of the street is the entrance to the Grand Bazaar through Gate 1.  I think that I was expecting a wild place, but the Grand Bazaar is a shopping mecca.  We walked past jewelry stores and earrings called out to me.  As we were looking at a shop with very colorful ceramics, Mom asked where we could find spices.  The shopkeeper walked us a little was to a spice shop and I was able to get the spices that I was looking for.  (Note to self: stop by the Spice Bazaar on my next visit!!!)

We returned to the ship, and with my Istanbul inspired shopping frenzy, I had to stop to buy Turkish tea and coffee at the duty free shop. 

We depart Istanbul at about 5:00 tonight and my film director (Mom) said that there were many beautiful sites of mosques and palaces on the way to the port.  I will be on deck filming!