Istanbul: Saturday

Since our new posh hotel didn't offer a free breakfast, we set off to find some food.  We thought we'd run into one of the numerous simit (Turkish sesame bagels) sellers en route to Yıldız Park, but no such luck.  

So we started exploring this gorgeous former imperial garden on empty stomachs in search of the cafe.  It was enchanting!  

The weather was perfect, everything was in bloom, and Turkish families were having picnics all over the place.  It would have been the perfect morning walk except we were famished... 

Soon we stumbled upon the Çadır pavilion where no one spoke English but we sat down and helped ourselves to the fabulous brunch on the patio and tried not to look too out of place.  And as with every meal outdoors in this city, Michael had another staring contest with a cat.

With our bellies full, we headed up to the Şale Pavilion which used to be the guest house for visitors of the sultan staying at Yıldız Palace.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to tour the Palace but the guest house was beautiful, ornate and very impressive (you wouldn't guess it from the facade).

Of course we couldn't take photos inside, but we could roam around the beautiful gardens.

The bridges were so cool!  And the ponds were filled with tadpoles and frogs on lily pads.  It was like being in a fairytale.

Last stop was the Malta Kiosk where they had a bigger and better buffet for the same price of the other place!  It was also much prettier inside.

And a better view...

So we shared some yummy Turkish ice cream on the terrace.  Then we walked back to the hotel and hung out at the hotel bar.  Doesn't get much better than this...

And we definitely needed this leisurely day to rest up for Sania's birthday party that night at Reina.

Reina is an outdoor club next to the bridge and right on the Bosphorus (which is awesome on a normal night) but which is spectacular on the night of the Super Moon!

So much fun.  I miss Sania already...

Istanbul: Friday

Today, we took the Dolmabahçe Palace tour.  This palace was built in the mid-1800s to modernize the Sultan's living quarters, as compared to the old fashioned Topkapi Palace. It was described as being designed using Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassical styles, blended with traditional Ottoman architecture. Honestly, we didn't see much traditional Ottoman architecture... except there was a harem in the back.

We weren't allowed to take photos on the inside, but I think you could tell that it was done on a budget since only the rooms seen by foreign ambassadors and others that they were trying to impress were covered in crystal and gold, and the other rooms were painted (albeit beautifully painted with depth and perspective).  Michael called it mullet architecture - ornate on the front and cheap on the back.

But the gardens were gorgeous!

And can't beat sitting on a bench overlooking the Bosphorus!

Complete with peacocks roaming the grounds!

After a nice morning at Dolmabahçe, we head over to see the last two mosques of our trip.  We finally figure out how to find the Rüstem Pasha Mosque!

It's a small mosque compared to the others we've seen on this trip, but it's unique because of its octagonal shape and its liberal use of gorgeous Isnik tiles.

Then we headed on over to check on the filming of the James Bond movie and the New Mosque.

What a beautiful interior!

I loved the colors in this mosque... I could just look up at the ceiling all day.

Now it was time for us to leave our little hotel near Taksim, and move on up to our fancy 5-star hotel in Ortaköy to meet up with Sania.  We sort of had a Bosphorus view from our room but we definitely had a bridge view.

And we even got fireworks during dinner!

About 10 minutes after the fireworks, the guy at the table next to us proposed to his girlfriend and it was so sweet.  We had no idea what in the world they were saying, but I guess love is the universal language.

Istanbul: Thursday

Michael reminded me that I forgot to mention that we saw Bosphorus dolphins on our way to the Princes' Islands!  It was such a fantastic treat!  Unfortunately, they were hard to photograph but here's an NPR story about them if you want to read about them.

So on Thursday, we were back in the Old City to do some sightseeing before our Turkish bath appointments.  We were trying to navigate to the Rüstem Pasha Mosque but took a wrong turn and ended up at the Süleymaniye Mosque up the hill. This was on our list anyway so we checked it out.

This is Michael's favorite mosque of our entire trip.  It's gorgeous.  Here's a crazy cool perspective looking up from the entrance.

And here we are!

Sinan, the architect for Süleymaniye and bunches of other stuff, designed his own tomb and it's just on the other side of the wall.

We saw a couple other sultan's grave yards too.  They were pretty neat!  (Kind of reminds me of Boston where they just have random, old grave yards in the middle of the city.)

As we walked down towards the Hamam (Turkish bath house), we got a closer look at the German Fountain.  This is how it looked when we passed by on Sunday.

This is how it looked when we walked closer.

Whoa!  Beautiful ceiling!  And on the same stretch, there was some sort of classic rally car exhibition going on with cars from all over the world.  Here's our, um, favorite...

Whoa!  And yeah, it was furry.  It was fun to see all the cars and the team members hanging out.  But we couldn't linger too long... we had an appointment at the Hamam!

Unfortunately, we couldn't take photos because it was beautifully restored and just gorgeous.  Both the men's and the woman's sides were super professional and it was a great experience.  You know I was worried about how naked I had to get for this thing... well, you're pretty much naked after 10 minutes... but like I said, they were super professional so it wasn't a big deal.

Both our favorite part: The Bubble Cocoon (as I'm going to call it).  You are basically lying on the warm marble and the bath lady/man soaks a linen pillow case (at least that's what it looks like) into a bucket of soapy water and makes a whole bunch of bubbles with it and drops it on you!  It's awesome.

Michael's least favorite part: Oil massage by a large Turkish man.

My least favorite part: The expensive price tag!  No, but it was definitely worth the experience.

We had dinner reservations afterwards and got the restaurants mixed up.  We could actually see the rooftop deck two rooftops down from us when we got to the rooftop of the place we walked into.  We were the only people there!  But hey, we gave it a shot and it ended up turning out really good (and cheaper than the original restaurant would have been!)

Here's Michael with a glass of the Turkish national beer (and cozy wrap) and the view at sunset wasn't too bad either.

Istanbul: Next Two Days

It was May Day (Labor Day) on Tuesday and the metro was closed, the street in front of the hotel was closed, thousands of police officers were out, and many more protesters were marching to Taksim Square.  We decided it was a great time to get out of the city so we set sail to Büyükada, the largest of the nine Princes' Islands.

These islands don't allow motorized vehicles on them so you either take a horse carriage ride (called phaeton), walk or rent bikes.

We decided to rent bikes but they were going FAST so we had to take what we could get... and Michael got this one.  It was a good purse and lunch holder!

The island was hilly and worth it.  Gorgeous views, grazing horses (with their foals), and one crazy dilapidated mansion that we took about a dozen photos of... it was pretty cool.

We got back to the city just in time to have a delicious seafood dinner at sunset on the Galata Bridge.

It would have been perfect, except the metros were still not running and we had to walk uphill (a very steep hill) to our hotel in Taksim Square.  Fortunately, we found Galata Tower on our way!

Exhausted and happy, we got back safe and slept very well last night!  And it's good we got some sleep because we walked over 10 miles today while discovering a little area called Fatih a little outside the main city area.

Chora Church is SUPER hard to find.  We took 3 metros and walked at least a mile trying to find the darn thing just to find out it was closed on Wednesdays!  Go figure.  But we did have lunch at the little cafe there... and met this guy who was determined to eat Michael's kabaps!

The cats!  Oh my goodness.  But after we finished our lunch, we started the walking tour along the Theodosian Wall from the 5th century.  The stairs were not up to code...

But the views were breathtaking!

We walked along the wall in the little town and peeked into a Greek church, some places that used to be synagogues,  some places the used to be churches, and some small mosques (including one by Sinan, the famed Turkish architect).  It was very residential and full of kids asking us our names, asking for money, and playing soccer down the street as we were walking.  Very quaint.  But so quaint that we decided not to walk all the way back to the metro and realized that the ferry no longer picks up at the dock near us.  So we had a lovely walk along the water all the way back into the city.

After dinner, we decided to check out this church that's near our hotel!  Gorgeous!

Sant'Antonio di Padova was a lovely find!  You can barely see it, but the Jesus above the alter was really neat!  And the twisted Jesus sculpture outside the church was even neater!

After checking that out, we decided that we had enough time to go to the Pera Museum.  They had a fantastic Goya exhibit on the top 3 floors but the first two floors were dedicated to art and artifacts of Istanbul.  Gorgeous space and wonderfully thought-out exhibit.

The first four and a half days have been fantastic.  We're really looking forward to the next four and a half days!