Another weekend off in February... where shall I go?! With plenty of delicious foods and sights to embrace, reasonable temperature and visa on arrival... Istanbul seemed the perfect destination!
It's one of the oldest cities in the world and has layers of diversity - a city where east meets west - a mix of Middle Eastern & European characteristics.
Flying from Abu Dhabi is a very easy 4 and a half hours to Istanbul, 18 hours from Sydney and probably around 7 hours from London.
On the Friday afternoon I arrived, with a little difficulty finding my Hotel Evsen (which I wouldn't really recommend to anyone else, the location is perfect but the service is a little lacking), to my hotel room with my requested french balcony, unpacking all my winter pieces and freshening up before I embark on my first Turkish experience. I picked up my map and made sure I marked my hotel and ventured up to the Blue Mosque by foot which was only 10 minutes away. Soaking up the atmosphere, capturing the streets sights and sounds, eyeing off mountainous stacks of delicious Turkish delight and pistachio nougat at every possible chance on the way.
I had completely forgot it was Friday!! The mosque is closed on this holy day for prayers, so unfortunately the blueness was never revealed to me. Although I didn't get a chance to go inside it was beautiful to see and sit in the mosque's courtyard, feel the weathered marble and imagine what it's like inside.
I wondered in the direction of Aya Sofia, across the road and through a manicured garden, freshly roasted chestnut stalls are plentiful. I spent the rest of the afternoon perched on the garden's wall watching the last of the drowning sunlight of the Aya Sofia, before heading home for an early night in.
The temperature had dropped noticeably on Saturday, almost down to 0 degrees. I had a busy day ahead, with a day and half left in colourful Istanbul, there was still lots to see, taste, explore and capture.
I started the day walking up Divan Yolu Cad, the main road of the old roman city following signs to the Grand Bazaar, grabbing a juicy lamb and salad filled kebab on the way. You will find the entrance of the enclosed bazaar, an arch with Grand Bazaar written above. It's buzzing with locals and tourists alike, eager shopkeepers, tea boys scurrying the labyrinth-like paths. Every second stall sells wooden backgammon boards, ceramics, jewelery, carpets and Turkish delicacies. Aimlessly wondering the bazaar, turning down 'innocent' invitations to look at their stores, 'Merhaba'-ing the local shopkeepers... I stumpled across a cute little ceramic shop, he was unlike all the other keepers, he was patiently in his stall & not haggling every person that walked past and that intrigued me to go inside. His english was great and was lovely to talk with him. He ordered an apple tea for me as I poked around his ceramics. Apple tea is like hot sweet apple juice in a espresso cup-sized glass - just the thing I needed to defrost my fingers and body. After a lovely chat, a cup of hot apple tea and my first Turkish purchases, I was on my way again.
I found an amazing shop filled with traditional Afghan jewelery! Such unique pieces, old silver, torquise stones, red beads, headdress's, rings and heavy necklaces. There was one that particularily caught my eye, long with torquise stones but cost as much as my weekend away, if not more! It was stunning and certainly something no one else would have..but i had to leave it for this time. I instead, found 2 beautiful silver headdress'. The cute little shop assistant offered me more tea and told me his excitement about playing in the national cricket team (i had no idea Turkey had a cricket team!!) and that he will be traveling to Pakistan next week to fetch the best cricket balls and bats for their tour. How cute!
You can spend hours in the Grand Bazaar, make sure you haggle otherwise they will easily rip you off! I couldn't leave Istanbul and not buy a backgammon board, after I'd bought a hand carved board I was off out in the fresh air again.
It was time to wonder over the Galata Bridge - filled with local fishermen. There were so many fishermen, I was suprised they seemed to catch anything at all!
To Be Continued.....
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