Jill and I wanted to see the Blue Mosque, since it was free, and we knew the other sites we wanted to see would cost money.
The reason this matters is that we could buy a discount pass to see all the other sites but it is limited in regards to time (3 days total) and we didn’t want to start at this point since the lines were pretty long.
We figured out that we’d see them, starting tomorrow morning, when there were less people and shorter lines.
Also, July and August in this part of the world is incredibly hot so there aren’t as many tourists, which is nice, and the sites are usually less crowded.
The negative is that some places are closed and others may have shorter viewing hours.
We didn’t notice this on this trip but it has happened to us in other places.
It is a chance we take to get away from the crowds and lines.
To us, it is worth the trade-off.
So, we walked up to the Blue Mosque and prepared to get in line.
I had shorts on so I had to pull them down to below my knees (it is respect in the Muslim culture to have your knees covered if you are a man).
Jill, on the other hand, has to put on a head scarf and also put on something covering her up down to her feet.
This makes it incredibly hot and uncomfortable.
To be honest, I’m not sure how women do it.
I’ve been told that some don’t wear anything underneath their robes but most seemed to be wearing leggings, at the very least, and I could not imagine the heat and dehydration that would accompany such clothes.
When we arrived, we realized it was in the middle of one of the prayer sessions and, as we aren’t Muslim, we wouldn’t be allowed inside.
We decided to just take some pictures from the outside, grab some lunch, and then see what else we wanted to do.
It was a bit anti-climatic to not be able to go inside but since Jill and I have been there before, it wasn’t a big let down.
We knew we’d be seeing it in a day or so and wouldn’t have to rush.
Jill and I went through the spice bazaar on the way to see the other sites around Istanbul.
It was a quick trip, and this isn’t the huge bazaar that Istanbul is famous for, but it is very cute.
There are lots of spices, and other things, that are hanging on the walls and put out in front of stalls.
We didn’t spend a lot of time in this one because we wanted to get a move on and get situated in regards to our plans for the next week of what we wanted to see, when we wanted to see it, and how long everything would take.
We aren’t big time planners but we like to make sure we can get done what we want to get done and not miss out on things because we don’t set our plans accordingly.
We also knew we’d be back by the spice bazaar, a few different times, because our subway stop drops us so close to it and we could easily go through it.
It was probably about 2 football fields long and wide and full of all kinds of yummy looking spices.
It also had a lot of soaps that were made with spices in them and Jill said they smelled wonderfully.
That is another thing that hit us immediately: the smell of the city is so different from Beijing.
It smells clean and fresh.
People from Istanbul may not agree, but compared to Beijing, it smelled like we were in a place much closer to nature and much more clean.
We also didn’t see nearly as much litter and there was almost no graffiti at all.
We actually didn’t really notice this until we went to Athens where there is graffiti everywhere.
It was a shocking difference considering it was only a one hour flight and the two cities are so much alike in many other ways.
We all know that the Mediterranean area is famous for Baklava.
Ask a Turk who makes the best and they’ll say, “Turkey!”
Ask a Greek who makes the best and they’ll say, “Greece!”
Ask an Egyptian who makes the best and they’ll say, “Egypt!”
Now, as an Armenian, I would say they have a point but they don’t.
Armenia makes the best Baklava.
However, I am a lover and not a fighter so I love baklava from everywhere and from anyone!
Baklava brings the world together and creates peace!
Jill and I were walking around Istanbul and just drooling with desire over the many different types of desserts and sweets in the windows.
There is, of course, lots of baklava, with different ingredients, but so much else to eat in both Turkey and Greece.
As you know, we are both vegetarians, and were sorely tempted to eat meat or fish, but stayed strong and kept our way.
As much as we would have enjoyed the momentary taste of it, we knew we’d feel guilty about killing something for our own pleasure so we supported each other and just ate more dessert.
We both think it was a fair trade off.
By the way, this may be a bit of a give away but I gained about 10 lbs on this trip.
Jill, somehow, didn’t gain an ounce.
I look like a Michelin man and she looks beautiful.
Jill and I then traveled under a major intersection to get to the Galata Bridge so that we could start visiting the mosques and the main area of Istanbul.
There is a strange bunch of little shops under this massive intersection and I noticed something that really blew my mind.
There was a gun store here.
Now, in the USA, noticing gun stores isn’t something that unusual for me.
I see them, once in a while, and don’t really notice them that much.
But, in China, the only time I see guns is when the military is carrying them.
These could do some serious damage.
Sometimes the police but they seem pretty minimalist regarding showing them off.
It was right in your face here in Istanbul and just a bit of a shock.
I was guessing these are bb guns or fake but my friends, who know guns, thought they were real and there was someone who fired a few rounds and it definitely sounded like the real thing.
It was just another reminder that we were in a different country and we were about to find out so much more about the world.
And that is exactly why Jill and I love to travel.
One never knows what is around the next corner, or underneath the next major intersection, for that matter.
By the way, neither Jill nor I ever felt any danger or fear on our whole trip. People were incredibly kind, generous and open with us.
In fact, after living in Beijing, things seemed slow, lazy and so uncrowded or busy, that we were able to relax a lot and noticed how anxious we had been in the last few months compared to how we like to be and want to live our lives.
It was a really good lesson to learn and something that we will remember about ourselves and how we choose to live our lives and make choices regarding our future.
Jill’s and my true vacation, and about 100 future blog posts, starts now.
We woke up, had a nice breakfast in the little cafe right around the corner from Andac’s apartment, and headed out to see the Galata Tower, or, Galata Kulesi if you want to see the Turkish name for it. It used to be called Galatea, which is Gaelic, because the Welsh people originally settled there, built it, and named it.
Jill had been here before, since she’s now been to Turkey 4 different times to my 1, and she thought it would be a good starting point for our adventures.
We walked in and paid for our tickets.
I think it was about 9 USD or something like that.
It was worth 100x that for the view alone.
We went in the elevator and headed up.
The elevator was empty so we took a few pictures and I loved how the elevator buttons were set into a replica of the tower.
When we reached the top, we walked up a flight of stairs, and then out onto the tower ledge.
It was truly amazing.
There were only a few other people there so we had it almost to ourselves.
The Galata Tower was originally built in 1348 and is about 200 feet tall. The walls are about 9 feet thick. Just stop and think of that. It is almost 700 years old. But that is nothing compared to what we will see later on during our vacation. It is truly mind blowing to think of the history and what has happened in this part of the world.
It was used to make sure the city wasn’t attacked and also for a few crazy inventors to jump off of with either a glider on their back or strapped to a rocket. I imagine Wyl E. Coyote would have approved of this idea. Supposedly, both inventors survived and proved their products were reliable. Have to be impressed with their salesmanship if not their sense of sanity.
It was a truly wonderful way to start the day and see so much of Istanbul in one simple tower.
We stayed up there for an hour or so and just breathed in the fresh air, watched the seagulls, and remembered what it felt like to be alive, free, and have the world at our feet.
After 7 months in China, we had forgotten a lot about ourselves.
We had become somewhat unhealthy, both physically and mentally, and both seemed to be coming alive again.
Just the feeling of the people, the culture, the architecture, the country, and the ease of everything was settling back in and it felt like we were home.
Jill had lived in Turkey for 3 months, at one time, and I’d visited for 3 weeks, and it seemed like everything was just right the second we arrived.
That feeling would continue for the next month and only become more evident and more true.
Andac, Jill and me sharing a few beers at 2:30 AM after arriving at his apartment.
Jill and I boarded our next flight and headed off.
Jill is incredibly lucky in that she can sleep through any flight, anywhere, at any time.
I, on the other hand, barely ever sleep on flights.
I have no fear of flying, in fact I love flying, but I just don’t find it easy to sleep in those seats with lots of people turning on and off lights all the time.
Jill used to work as an executive for major corporations so she trained herself to fall asleep the second her butt hits the seat.
Who knows, with all the traveling we plan in our future, I might be able to do the same.
Either way, the flight was uneventful, and we arrived a bit early in Istanbul.
We grabbed a cab and enjoyed the sites in the moonlight as our arrival was around 1:30 AM.
Jill has a lot of friends in Istanbul, and one of them, Andac (pronounced An-DACH as the Turkish language stresses the second syllable of each word) had told us we could stay at his place.
We told him we could grab a hotel, since we were arriving so late, but he would not have it.
This is actually not surprising from the Turks I’ve met and that Jill knows: They are incredibly kind and giving people and love to have a good time.
Our cab driver did a great job and we arrived around 2:30 AM and rang the doorbell to Andac’s apartment.
He opened the gate and we climbed up the stairs to his place.
It was a great little 1 bedroom apartment and totally perfect for what we needed to do while we were staying in Istanbul.
Andac was everything Jill had said he would be: gracious, funny, smart, and very thoughtful and forward thinking.
He is actually running his own business selling these amazing Yoga mats/camping towels on Amazon and we used them for the whole time we were there and loved them.
You can also use them as clothes as you can see in the slide show. Honestly, it is one amazing product and well worth buying.
I want to give a shout out to his business and encourage anyone that wants to support him, and buy a superior product, to click on this link to Nagnalife.com and check them out.
Jill and I each have one and love them beyond belief! They are amazing comfortable, easy to pack, and are the fastest drying towels we’ve ever used.
We will be taking them on our trips with us everywhere we go.
After checking out the yoga mats/camping towels, we all talked for an hour or so and then Jill and I hit the sack ready to experience a full day of Istanbul tomorrow morning, bright and early!
Little did we know, the call to prayer would start at 3:30 AM that morning. It was a wonderful way to be welcomed into Istanbul in so many ways!
