Constantinople

Spent 3 days and 2 nights in Istanbul, the worlds 2^nd largest city (by population) and more importantly where part of the filming for the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, took place.

City	Population
Istanbul  (crazy)	13.5 million
New York (went once)	8.2 million
Chicago (went a bunch)	2.7 million
Eskişehir (where I live now)	650,000
Grand Rapids (good beer)	774,000
Ada, MI (home)	13,000

In Istanbul we toured the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Basilica Cistern, and Dolmabahçe Palace. We took a boat tour of the Bosporus, haggled at the Grand Bazaar, sampled foods at the Spice Bazaar, and partied around Taksim Square.  Istanbul is unique in that is partly in Europe and partly in Asia (transcontinental).  Europe’s largest city also contains a large amount of ethnic minorities and tourists, like any major city would I guess. It was a nice change of pace to be amount thousands of other tourists and speak English relatively easily when shopping, eating, etc.


Dropping a photo bomb.

View upon arrival, outside our hostel.

Hagia Sophia 

Blue Mosque

Blue tiles tiles which give the Blue Mosque its name.

Outside the Blue Mosque, love that shirt!

Spice Bazaar, one of my favorite places. 

Saucy sausages 

Turkish Delight assortment. 

Turkish Delight is a candy made of a sugar gel like confection base with nuts, honey, lemon, etc added. 

Sampled some great teas.

Cantilevered retaining walls below the water table.

Floating club on the Bosphorus 

Fish sandwhich that I tried to eat after the boat tour. Couldn't do it. 

Dolmabace Palace, so much swag to be had there. 

4.5 ton chandelier in the Palace. 

Istiklal Street during the day. Very busy street with shops at ground level and bars on the 

Galata Tower at night.

Heading down an Istiklal side street, so many people eating, drinking, and having a good time. We ended up finding a club with rooftop dancing. 

Birthday drink for Agne. 

Another one of my favorites, the Basilica Cistern.  It was underground, cool, dark, damp, and very cool. 

1 of 2 original Medusa's heads in the Cistern. It is not sure what they are doing there or how they got there. 

Carrying the Turkish flag around Istanbul for 15TL.

Inside the Grand Bazaar (3000 shops) where we haggled and I bought too much stuff. 

Just before entering the Grand Bazaar.