istanbul
10/19/2025 - 10/29/2025
We got up ridiculously early for our morning flight from Goreme to Istanbul. Aside from being too early, everything went very smoothly. Istanbul is about 450 miles northwest of Goreme on the Sea of Marma. The Bosphorus Straight cuts right through Istanbul from the Sea of Marma to the Black Sea on the north. Europe is on the west side of the Bosphorus Straight and Asia is on the east side. Istanbul is the only city in the world that spans 2 continents! The city is huge with a population of about 16 million people!
Istanbul is pretty interesting with a very different culture and “feel” compared to western European cities . It is a huge city and very crowded, so I expected not to like it… but we actually both liked it. I thought we would feel unsafe and on edge, but we didn’t at all. I had imagined us scurrying home before dark every night, me hiding my wedding ring, and Grady wearing one of those silly little money holders that goes under your clothes. We did none of that!
While we felt pretty safe/relaxed, we still had to be pretty hypervigilant of scams! They like to overcharge tourists given the opportunity, so you have to watch receipts and change pretty closely. We were admittedly victims of one scam (that we know of) which cost us about $20.00 when attempting to purchase a public transportation card. In spite of that, we still like this city (as far as big cities go).
We visited several mosques. There are over 3,000 mosques in Istanbul! The exteriors are all very similar with the same color scheme. The main difference is size and number of minarets. And after a while, most of the interior’s kind of look the same also… big beautiful domes and carpeted floor with stripes to direct worshipers toward Mecca. Mosques have no statues or paintings of people, you will see calligraphy of the words Muhammed and Allah, but never any other type of depiction.
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (more commonly known as the Blue mosque) is the most famous mosque and therefore, ridiculously crowded. It was designed by Sultan Ahmed I and construction started in 1609. The cost was beyond ridiculous and its opulence was offensive to the Muslim people. With the exception of Mecca, it was the only mosque at the time with six minarets … so they added a 7th minaret to the mosque in Mecca! No one would pray in the Blue Mosque until after the death of Sultan Ahmed I.
The Suleymaniye Mosque was completed in 1557 on the orders of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (they liked him a lot obviously!). Pretty much every Sultan had a mosque built in their honor. This one had 4 minarets and wasn’t as big as the Blue Mosque. But it was positioned on a hill overlooking the water and had really pretty views.
There was also a cemetery outside the mosque… and like my mother and my son, I love a good cemetery! I think it might be a genetic defect! 😊 Each grave had 2 tall stones, one with information, and one as decoration. Obviously, we couldn’t read the writing, but the decorative ones told you a lot. Flowers for women, turban for male royalty, an anchor for Naval officers, and smaller stones for children
The Hagia Sophia mosque is the only one that charges an entrance fee and that is only because the second floor is a museum. But it is really cool, because it is totally an open balcony that wraps around the entire mosque, so you see the entire first floor (striped carpet, people on their knees facing Mecca…), but you are above it all with closer views of the domes, and lots of interesting information. When constructed in the early 500’s, it was a cathedral (not a mosque), and it was the largest cathedral in the world! It remained the world's largest cathedral for nine centuries, until the Florence Cathedral was built in 1436.
Having stood for almost 1,500 years, the building has been hailed as the 8th wonder of the world. It was converted to a mosque in 1453 following the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. The original altar, bells, and sacrificial vessels of the Hagia Sophia were removed during its renovation to a Mosque, but Sultan Mehmed II ordered the numerous frescoes and mosaics of the Byzantine era be protected, so they were whitewashed in plaster and covered in Islamic designs and calligraphy. Muslim religion doesn’t allow paintings or mosaics of people, but they respected the Christian religion and Jesus Christ (who they believe in as a profit, just not as the son of God), which is why they didn’t destroy the paintings or mosaics. Some of them are now uncovered in the museum area.
The final mosque we visited was the Rustem Pasha Mosque which was built in 1561. It is one of the most embellished mosques of the Ottomans and is famous for its Iznik tiles on the interior walls. We kind of liked this one because of the tiles, but also because it isn’t a crowded tourist attraction.
The Basilica Cistern is literally just a ginormous underground water tank. It was built in 532 AD beneath the Stoa Basilica, thus the name. The reservoir is incredible! It is lined with 336 columns, which were basically pillaged from ruins of temples all over the Roman empire… so they don’t match. There are two columns with Medusa Heads engraved at the base; one is sideways and the other is inverted. There is another column named the Weeping Column, which was built to commemorate the hundreds of slaves who gave up their lives for the genius construction of this underground cistern. It holds (held) 80,000 cubic meters of water. That’s like 21,133,764 gallons!
We did a cooking class in someone’s private home. It was definitely an experience! Cool, but also a bit awkward. The lady was so sweet, and her English was pretty good, but not great. There were times where the conversation became pretty challenging. And her kitchen… oh lord, it was not set up for cooking classes! There was really only room for one of us in there with her at a time, so the other would cram themselves in the doorway leading to the balcony. All in all, it was a unique experience, the food was good, and we were glad to be supporting a local.
Istanbul is known for its markets (bazaar’s). The first market we wandered through was the book bazaar… it wasn’t even interesting enough for us to think to take pictures! The next one was a spice market which was in a beautiful 17th century building. At the intersection of the two wings of the Spice Bazaar is a wooden balcony with a little spiral staircase. It is called the Ezan Kiosk. When the bazaar opened every morning, the officer in charge would call a prayer for the shopkeepers wishing them a profitable day and to not take advantage of shoppers... they don’t worry about the second part anymore!
There are also lots of crazy crowded outdoor markets. These are the markets where locals shop because they offer fair prices without having to bargain. They are painful to walk through because they are SO crowded.
And, of course, the mac daddy of bazaar’s is the Grand Bazaar. It is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops. After shoving our way through the outdoor markets, I was kind of dreading the Grand Bazaar. We had heard so much about how crowded it is and how badly the vendors harass you… but it actually wasn’t bad at all! It was in a pretty building from 1461. We went in with no intention of buying anything, so really weren’t harassed because we never paid any attention to any of the merchandise.
We visited Dolmabahçe Palace which was so beautiful! It is the largest palace in Turkey, with 285 rooms, 46 halls, 6 baths, and 68 toilets. So big, but nothing to some of the palaces we visited in Western Europe! This palace was built in the 19th century and only used as the official residence of the Ottoman Sultans for about 50 years. It was built in the European style and much more lavish than the Topkapi Palace which had been used the prior 400 years of the Ottoman Empire. We weren’t supposed to take photos inside, but Grady managed to sneak quite a few! Such a rebel!
We also visited Topkapi Palace which served as the residence of Ottoman sultans for nearly 400 years and functioned as an administrative and educational center of the Ottoman Empire.
It was built under the orders of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror in 1453, six years after the Ottomans conquered Constantinople. Throughout the centuries, subsequent Ottoman rulers expanded and enhanced the complex.
We were kind of unimpressed with this palace. There was no one defining palace building, it was just a vast area with buildings and courtyards. There are very few glimpses into how they lived or what their rooms looked like. Most of the buildings are now used as museums, several of which we walked through… jewels (not nearly as impressive as the crown jewels we saw in England), sultan clothing (gigantic robes – probably what we are going to need to buy for ourselves by the end of this trip), and kitchens (not very interesting).
Everything was sooooo crowded it made for a not very enjoyable visit.
We took the ferry across the Bospherus Straight to go to the Asian side of the city. Everything we read indicated it was a “must do”. We were pretty unimpressed. We started by walking to an area that had lot of murals and Grady had a map to find them. That was marginally interesting. Then we headed to this other area that sounded fantastic (supposedly waterfront restaurants and cute bars)… there really wasn’t much for waterfront anything. We found a place for a basic lunch and moved on. We did, however find a really great wine bar, so that saved the day!
We managed to get a seat on the always crowded historic tram. We were very excited and took several photos like a couple of nerdy tourists!
The Galata Tower is very well known and a major attraction. It was built in 1348 initially as a watchtower, and later used as a prison. It now houses a museum and, of course, beautiful views. The line to go in was absurd and at about $35.00 per person, we opted for a couple photos from the outside and moved on.
On 10/26/25 we officially hit wine bar number 100!! Just 139 days into our trip. I’m not sure if that’s bad or good! None the less, we were happy to celebrate number 100 in a really awesome 1898 wine bar!
No Istanbul blog would be complete without mention of all the cats! The Ottomans worshipped cats based on their cleanliness and their ability to hunt. As a result of their long history, cats have become an essential part of Turkish culture and the city of Istanbul. They receive veterinary care and are vaccinated and neutered. There are little cat houses everywhere, people and restaurants routinely feed and water them, and there are even vending machines to provide food if you forget to bring some from home!
They are EVERYWHERE… in the restaurants, in the grocery stores, in the banks, but not in the Mosques! Somehow they know the mosques are off limits. Allah must have told them!
Emma and Colleen… if you made it this far in your “Blog Reading Party”, I love you and miss you and can’t wait to see you both when you come to visit us!!!
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