I went to Istanbul!! Amy, one of my good friend's from high school is spending a semester in Hungary while she works on her MFA. I wanted to connect with her while she's on this side of the world, so we planned a trip to Istanbul. My friend Rachel joined us. I booked a hostel online at hostelworld.com and it ended up working out really well. It was in a great place - within 10 minutes of a lot of the major sites (and we found it fairly easy... after walking in circles for a little while), it was clean and safe. So all in all, a good hostel experience (we had a private 3 bed room with our own bathroom, no dorm rooms). The best part of it was the rooftop view at breakfast!
^ With Amy and Rachel - on our hostel's rooftop terrace!
^The spike thing in the background is a minaret from the Blue Mosque - we could hear the sunrise call to worship from our room... no need to set an alarm : )
Our First Full Day
First Stop: The Blue Mosque
This is one of the most famous mosques in the city.
^Mosques don't have any figurative art, they use tiles and paint decorative, symmetric designs. They also do a lot with calligraphy. The lights are pretty cool. They originally held oils and wicks for candles, but now they are wired with electricity.
^Women were required to wear head coverings to respect the Muslim traditions while in the mosque.
Second Stop: Hagia Sophia
This was built by Justinian and was a beautiful church in its day. It was later converted to a mosque by the Ottomans.
^You can see the round green circles towards the front - it's calligraphy art. One says "Muhammed" and the other says "Allah".
^ The steps were pretty worn down from years of use.
Third Stop: Topkapi Palace
This is where all of the sultans resided.
Fourth Stop: Basilica Cisterns
These were amazing - as it was pretty advanced technology for its day. This is how the city got fresh water.
Our Second Full Day
First Stop: The Galta Tower
This is one of the oldest towers in the world!!
^The tower up close
^The tower from the Topkapi Palace
^Topkapi Palace from the top of the tower. 
^Europe in the foreground, Asia in the distance - across the Bosporus.
^Europe - that's the Golden Horn body of water.
^Looking across the Golden Horn and the Galta Bridge. I think the larger mosque in the picture is Suleyman's Magnificent Mosque (where we went our final morning).Second Stop: Rustempasa Mosque
This mosque was above a market area, and took a little hunting to find the entrance.
Third Stop: The Egyptian Market (Spice Market)
The Spice Market was cool - lots of amazing smells as we walked along the path. Lots of different colors too - spices and teas.
^Turkish Delight... was delightful. Now we know why Edmond betrayed his family for it. I didn't think I was going to like it very much, but Rachel and Amy loved it so I tried it too.
Fourth Stop: The Grand Bazar
"Come and spend your money on something in which you do not need!"
"I will spend your money."
"Hello, yes please!"
These are the phrases we heard as we walked through the bazar. Merchants were persistent, but not as bad as I was expecting and was warned about. I found it similar to the markets in Thailand and Cambodia that I visited.
Our Third Full Day
First Stop: The Islamic Arts Museum
^Rugs from a very, very long time ago (like 1300-1500's) - pretty impressive!
Second Stop: The Archeology Museum
^Tiles from Babylon
Our Final Morning
Suleyman's Magnificent Mosque
I found this mosque to be the prettiest. As much as I like the tile, I found some tiles jobs to be too much. I thought the plainer walls in this one and tile accents on the frames were really pretty.
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