The city formerly known as Constantinople

So it looks like there's a 2 month lag time between when I go somewhere and when I actually get around to post about it. But I am trying to catch up, really I am!!

This is the post where I talk about my trip to Istanbul, which happened in late April when I had some very welcome visitors (who know who they are!)

We arrived in Istanbul on a Monday night and checked into our hotel, Hotel Sultan Hill, which was great and everyone should stay there when they go to Istanbul. The staff is really friendly and it has a great location (in the middle of the old part of Istanbul). It's basically located right under the Blue Mosque ( a fact that will become significant later in this post).

We settled in and decided to take a little walk. We walked by the Blue Mosque. Here is the first of about 57 pictures that I took of the Blue Mosque:

Then we went in search of a restaurant. Searching for a restaurant in Istanbul is an exercise in avoiding eye contact because any time you even glance in the direction of someone's restaurant, they are immediately all over you trying to get you to come and eat there. I didn't find it threatening, but it did get mildly annoying after awhile.

The next morning we discovered the one downside to the hotel's location. Being so close to the Blue Mosque means hearing the call to prayer at full volume. It's like having someone shouting into a microphone as loud as possible right outside your bedroom. The first call to prayer happens at around 5 in the morning. We weren't really expecting it, so it was quite a wake-up call. It went on for what seemed like hours, but was probably only about 10 minutes. Luckily, we were able to go back to sleep after that. It happened the next two mornings we were there as well, but by the third morning I had gotten used to it and was able to sleep through it.

After sleeping a few more hours, we got up and decided to walk around the old part of Istanbul. We went again to the Blue Mosque, going inside this time. This is a more close-up version of the mosque.

There are faucets outside where people can wash their feet and hands before entering inside. When you go in, you have to take your shoes off and women have to cover their heads with something. Inside the mosque, there is an open area in the center for men to pray. When women come in to pray they have to stand in areas around the sides of the mosque, separated from the men by a screen.

After the Blue Mosque, we went to Hagia Sofia, which used to be an Orthodox Church and then later was converted into a mosque. Here is a picture:

The inside was very impressive, and quite interesting because there was a lot of the old Orthodox art, but there were also pieces of art with Arabic writing hanging around the ceiling area. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the Muslim art, but here is an example of the Orthodox art in the church.

We also went to the Mosque of Suleymane, which was impressive as well, although we couldn't see all of it because part of it is being refurbished at the moment. We had lunch at a place across from the mosque where everyone seemed to be eating beans. We ordered beans too, and they were delicious!

After lunch, we went to the Grand Bazaar to have a look around. I bought some perfume there (which may or may not be counterfeit designer) and also a few presents. The experience of shopping there is much like looking for a restaurant. You are constantly being entreated to enter the different stalls and if you so much as glance in the direction of something being sold, the salesmen will immediately give you the "hard sell". Still, it's all in good fun. I didn't take any pictures inside the bazaar because I was a little concerned about taking out my camera in such a busy place. So you'll have to imagine what it was like!