Welcome to Istanbul!

W.O.W. pretty much describes Istanbul Turkey, and even that is an understatement. For the last few days we have had our minds completely blown by it. It is truly magical place. The city is a gigantic, sprawling metropolis fronted by the Sea of Marmara on one side and the Black sea on the other and is quite modern surprisingly with its Old World charms and traditions still intact.

The city is divided up into the Old which is the historic center, and the New which is a full blown European playground, and it is a drastic difference crossing over into one another. We stayed in the Old town and I think we may have died if we stayed in the new part as our evenings alone there have lasted from pretty late to sunrise.

The people here are the kindest, happiest people we have seen in a foreign country in a long time and we have felt very welcomed and taken care of. Turkey is predominantly Muslim and it is very apparent everywhere you look. Ottoman era Mosques dot the landscape, with the call to prayer we heard so much in Indonesia echoing throughout the city 5 times a day. The Muslim women here seem to be a lot more modern and enjoy more freedom than we had seen in Indonesia as well, rocking fashion-forward headscarves such as Chanel, smoking cigs, and hanging out at the neighborhood tea gardens smoking nargileh (waterpipe).

locals

cell charging station on the street!?

The food is to die for and we have obviously been partaking in that quite heavily. Breakfasts of green plums, turkish black tea, apple tea and turkish coffee, cherry juice, peynir sheepsmilk cheese, local breads and the best jellies I have ever tasted, the sweet cherry and rose with actual rose petals mixed in being our favorite.

Turkish tea

tea break

For lunch we have been hitting the street food scene which consists of fresh squeezed pomegranate juice, grilled salted corn, the wet burger (don't even ask!) and the highly addictive doner kebaps. Lamb meat that has been carmelizing on a spit served on a thin flat bread with pickled veggies, fries and lettuce. Doesn't sound like much but one bite and we were hooked. We have yet to get into two of the biggest local faves which is a fresh fish sandwich sold ocean front and the mussels stuffed with rice and spices. We just can't risk hugging the porcelain yet by trying out lukewarm seafood that has been sitting there in the sun.

meaty love

first of many kebaps

bread cart

roasted corn and chestnut cart

Dinners have been phenomenal. The place to be is a 'meyhane' which is like a Turkish tavern I suppose and these meals are a several course affair that the locals enjoy in big groups. A huge tray of cold mezes which are tiny plates of Turkish tapas are brought to your table and you pick and choose the ones you want. Eggplant, pumpkin and walnut spread, yogurt with dill and cucumber, peppers, white beans and chickpeas in oil, hummus, and various fish in olive oil are the backbones of most of the mezes and is served with this puffed up type of bread to eat it with.

stuffed mussels sold in front of the club

intestine wrapped meats...not what we ate

And now to the fun part of a meal...raki! Oh man we love this stuff...too much. Raki is an aniseed brandy that is 40 proof and you can order a bottle or by the glass. Just a half of a bottle will keep us at the table a few hours. You are brought a bottle, bucket of ice and a bottle of water and in order: pour a liberal amount of raki, add water and watch it turn the raki a cloudy white, add a few cubes of ice and get ready to watch your tapas start spinning! Efes is the beer of choice here and of course we made friends within an hour of arriving from our horrific trip here.

yes please

Our hotel couldn't have been more perfect, especially just from choosing from the Internet. Turkish design with a traditional marble bathroom. Our terrace overlooks the Bosphurus sea and unsurprisingly we have watched the sun come up over it and it may have been the Raki marathon but I shed a tiny tear at our beautiful orange-hued view.

our marble bath/shower

view from room balcony

another balcony view, lol

chillin' in our traditional room

view from terrace

Our first night consisted of walking the city and stumbling on a massive whirling dervish show in the park, dinner with our waitress hellbent on getting us drunk and checking out the hundreds of lokum or Turkish Delights and baklava storefronts. They really love their sweets here!

delightful

night cart

Day 1 we went into super tourist mode at the crack of dawn checking out Istanbul's most famous monument built in 537, the Haghia Sofia. It was absolutely breathtaking.

exterior...

...interior

no clue what this says

typical attire around town

quiet moment

Next up the Basilica Cistern which is an old underground water storage supported by columns which are now lit up with red light in this dark damp atmosphere.

pillars

and more pillars

with flash

Moved onto the Blue Mosque which was our first time entering a mosque. We had to remove our shoes and I had to put on some material to cover my skin before entering.

exterior with Turkish flags

view from rooftops

courtyard of blue mosque

interior

taking the mosque seriously

Very odd feeling being in there, the women have a seperate quarters where they can pray and no offense but the smell of tourists smelly, sweaty feet on old carpet was a bit overwhelming walking around in there.

Wandered the Hippodrome outside where chariot races were held and called it for naptime after a loooong day of sightseeing.

Headed out to the New City in Beyoglu for a wild evening to say the least. Public transport is top-notch here so we hopped the metro for Galata Bridge where hundreds of people congregate to fish and hawk their wares.

galata bridge at sunset

it's very windy here

view from galata bridge

pistachio cart

backgammon and fishing

mosque on the bosphorus

fish sandwich guys

fresh squeezed juice cart

potions dude

tea by the sea

sunset

sundown

I don't think we have ever seen the sheer amount of people out in an evening as what we saw that night. Up a giant hill is the Galata Tower where it seems like all of Istanbul has congregated to meet up for the evening festivities.

Galata Tower

pomegranate juice stand (mel, you would love it!)

Then we hit the main drag of Istiklal and it was like Vegas, Ibiza and Barcelona all in one. Holy shit. Just one loud, booming, energetic area of clubs, bars, restaurants etc. shoulder to shoulder ready to go. You just walk up into an alley full of people drinking and a dude approaches you with an armband palm pilot to place your order and boom, here is your beer on the street within minutes. i wish I took more pics but we sorta got lost in the moment.

istiklal before the wild times

We met this great guy Charli in one of the alleys who happened to live in the U.S. for 5 years and he ended up taking us to two packed to the gills local clubs and his favorite late night/early morning waterpipe lounges where we ate fruit and salty nuts (ha!). We would not have seen and experienced the things we did that night if it wasn't for him so thank you Charli for what will prob. be one of our craziest, most eventful nights on this trip!