Istanbul

I realize that we got back from our 2 week cruise a week ago, but we made a deal with my mom that if she stayed a little long in Belgium, we'd leave and she'd watch kids. How can you say no to a trusted babysitter?

Istanbul is one of the last places on my list that I really wanted to go while we're in Europe. Everyone I had talked to loved it there. So I found cheap tickets and we went. We ended flying Turkish airlines and on the 3 hour flight they served a complete meal with real silverware and sturdy dishes...not what I was expecting for economy class. We took public transit to our hotel and ended up arriving an hour later than expect. The office was closed (not good), but we'd made so much noise rolling our luggage on the cobblestone, some guest staying on the first floor peeked out the window and said we could get the key from the hotel next door.

We got a pretty late start (for us) and weren't out the door until 9:30am the next morning. Wandering through a little bazaar we made our way to the fountains between the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.

From here we started our walking tour.  First up was the catacombs.  You go down some stairs to an underground water supply.  As we continued our walk, we found some sweet treat shops (tried the baklava and some wheat/pistachio roll), kebabs on every corner and roasted corn on the cob from the street vendors.  Our walking tour ended at the Grand Bazaar and  instead of moving right into the grand bazaar tour we decided to just wander on our own.  How lost could we get?  Well....very very lost.  It was fun to just wander, but when we started trying to get back to some landmark so we'd know where we were we had some trouble.  Every turn seemed to go a little ways then dead end in courtyards. 

When we did find our way out we were right next to the ferries (a good distance from our hotel). Ryan's pretty spontaneous and grabbed some tokens to take the ferry over the Asian side of Istanbul.  This side didn't have as many people (still had a good amount though), seemed to be a little cleaner and prices seemed to be a little cheaper.  We found a delicious little treat.  So amazing.  The guy making them would just grab a handful of batter (the consistency of waffle batter) and pinch it off while making a whole in the middle tossing it directly into a hot liquid.  I have not idea what the liquid was but it seemed to be some type of honey syrup because he didn't add anything to them (aside form a sprinkle of cinnamon) before handing them to us and they were so so so sweet.  I don't know how anyone could eat a whole container of them.  By the time we made it back to the ferry, the sun was already starting to set (sun goes down around 4 at this time of year).  It was funny to see the seagulls fly in packs around each of the ferries and see a crow land on the ferry and ride across the river.

It was dark as we walked back to our hotel for a quick nap before dinner (we were sick remember).  when we came back out around 7, the streets were filled with lights but shops were closed and people were gone.  It's amazing how such a crowded city can completely clear out at such an early hour.  We found this to be the same each night we were there.

The next morning we started out with a visit inside the Blue Mosque.  They don't have any images of people, but instead very intricate designs.   We did the walking tour of the grand bazaar.  Off the bazaar there are many courtyards of workshops.  We found one of people hammering out silver and another with rugs being made.  After our self-guided tour, we stumbled upon a tiny corner kebab place that had a line of locals so we went and tried it out.  The only door in/out of the place was a half door that opened up directly under the the kebab meat cooked on the skewer.  You might be able to fit 3 people standing inside the kitchen area.  It looked like they took shifts inside (I'd imagine it was pretty hot in there) so one would duck out and be helping wrap up the kebab on the outside, one duck in to put the kebab together and the third outside shaving meat off the rotating skewer. 

We started another walking tour, visited another mosque, tried some pizza and navigated the spice bazaar.  For dinner we ate at a nicer sit down place than we normally do (nice meaning it wasn't a takeaway place).  With dinner they served  some delicious fresh pita bread with tzatziki sauce and hummus to dip it in.  I could eat that every day. We finished off our day with some Turkish ice cream.  I was little disappointed that they didn't do the whole play with your cone thing we saw on The Amazing Race ;).

Our third day in Istanbul was pretty low key.  After a breakfast at our hotel overlooking the river, we headed out.  I loved the fresh juice and fresh pomegranates at breakfast.

Today was devoted to the new town (a more modern shopping area).  We took the scenic route along the beach.  After our walking tour of the new town, we made our way to church.   I was pretty impressed that we found the unmarked building and were even on time.  It would have been awkward to walk in late since we weren't positive it was the right place and the door enters into the front of the room they use for sacrament meeting.  We met with a small branch.  They spoke mainly in English and would stop to translate into Turkish (our ward in Brussels does simultaneous translation using headphones).  Before running (literally) back to our hotel, we stopped at the same pizza place from the day before...that's how good it was. 

We took the tram and metro back to the airport arriving 2 hours early and it's a good thing we did. I've never felt like we've needed all the time they say you need at the airport but here it was necessary. We stood in line for security to enter the airport, then waited in line to drop off our luggage (it was shorter than the massive line because we checked in online but still decently long), next was the ginormous line for border control and lastly another security line. From here we made our way to our gate which we had to be at 1 hour early so we could be bussed out on the tarmac to our airplane. I am so glad we weren't doing all that with kids.