Exotic Istanbul, Türkiye

 

Well, a couple more pictures from Bulgaria. This is on our walk in the Pirin National Park. Mountains stretch almost 10,000 feet high! Beautiful!

Another shot of Bansko with the Pirin Mtns in the background. 

Istanbul, Turkey is an hour flight from Sofia, Bulgaria. It straddles Europe and Asia across the Bosphorus Strait. This is the Blue Mosque, built in the early 1600s and is a functioning mosque today. It has a total of 6 minarets. The minarets are the narrow towers that are built next to mosques. The calls to prayer (5 times a day) are broadcast from loudspeakers on the minarets. It was unforgettable to hear the 15 minute call to prayer.

Tom drinking Turkish tea at the Grand Bazaar.

Paying with Turkish lira.

Spice market

Gummi Bears, I was tempted to grab a handful!

Spice market

We really loved the food in Istanbul. This is chicken kebab. They served a lot of veal, chicken, and seafood. Since 90% of Turkey’s population is Muslim, pork was not found on the menu for religious reasons.

Roasted chestnuts and corn were popular street foods

The mighty Bosphorus and Galata Tower, built in 1348.  

The Camlica Tower (telecommunications) is located on the Asian side of the Bosphorus Strait and is 1200 feet tall. The Bosphorus has all kinds of traffic from sightseeing ferries to cruise ships and container barges. 

Below is another popular activity on the Bosphorus - swimming! It’s a very short clip. So badly I wanted to take a dip.

Typical Turkish breakfast

Turkish coffee is made of finely ground coffee beans. It’s brewed by boiling in traditional copper pots. It is much more aromatic and thicker compared to other coffees. 

More food!

This flat bread is called bazlama and it is crazy good, especially served with some black olives and olive oil. It’s said that the country that eats the most bread is Turkey, eating 440 pounds per person annually. We try not to eat so much bread anymore at home  but man did we chow it down in Istanbul! It was delicious!

The Basilica Cistern was built in the 6th Century for the eastern Roman Empire. It was used to store water. You can see that there is water in the cistern. We were on a metal walkway. Added to the cistern in more recent times are pieces of art like the Medusa sculpture in this picture. 

This is the head of Medusa lying sideways at the base of one of the columns. The story goes that there were 2 Medusa heads left over from the construction of the Hagia Sophia Mosque and, rather than getting rid of them, they decided to recycle the Medusas (sideways) into the base of 2 of the 28 columns (nearly 40 feet high). You can’t make this shit up.

This is the Hagia Sophia Mosque I was mentioning in the previous couple of pictures. It was completed in AD 537! It is a functioning mosque and museum today. 

Pistachio baklava

And a spot of tea

Visiting the Blue Mosque

Inside the mosque

I had to borrow a head covering to go inside the mosque. They hand out the head coverings at the entrance, collect them at the end, and schlep the whole lot of them back to the entrance for reuse. Weee!

We loved the rooftop dining overlooking the Bosphorus and the 2 mosques. And the food was WONDERFUL!! 

We had a great trip to Bulgaria and Istanbul. Consider checking them out yourself!