istanbul with mom & dad

mom and dad have returned home to the us, and i miss them already! we had a wonderful end to their visit in istanbul, where we saw the sights & ate the wonderful food.


we took an early flight from ankara that allowed us to start our sight-seeing around noon last wednesday. our hotel was in the center of sultan ahmet, which is the location of many historic sights and therefore a very touristy but beautiful spot in the city. the location was especially great because it allowed us to walk to places like topkapi, where we began our tour of istanbul:




i hadn't visited the harem section before, and it was fascinating, though we all agreed a bit depressing. this picture, of course, was taken BEFORE the tour: that night we had a lovely dinner at my favorite istanbul restaurant, cok cok, that offers great thai food. we had the pleasure of listening to this cellist's own arrangements during our meal:
the next morning we started at aya sofia, where we learned more about the history of istanbul and saw some very ancient, very beautiful mosaics that have recently been uncovered:
mom put her finger in the 'sweating column,' which is said to bring good health if your finger comes out wet (ours just came out cold, and probably covered in germs so we washed them immediately):
dad made friends everywhere we went, and aya sofia was no different. here he's chatting with some school masters who were visiting (from norway, i think) for a conference:


that night after a tour of the grand bazaar in the afternoon, we headed to asmali cavit, a fabulous turkish restaurant located on a very lively street in taksim:
the next morning we were up early and headed to the port to catch a ferry to anadoglu kavagi, a 1.5 hour ride up the bosphorus. along the way we enjoyed views of istanbul's multi-million dollar bosphorus properties, as well as a special yogurt made exclusively in kanlica, where we made one of several stops to pick up passengers:


we got off at the final stop, anadoglu kavagi, and followed our fellow passengers up the steep mountainside to the old castle, where we got an amazing view of the end of the bosphorus and opening of the black sea

after hiking back down we had lunch at the port, where fried calamary, mussels and meze are the specialty (though we weren't brave enough to try the fresh mussels), with very close-up views of the fishing boats

en-route back to besiktas port we saw more beautiful ottoman-style homes along the water
along with giant ships
and tiny ships
later we walked to ortakoy, another area of istanbul along the bosphorus, where we stopped for tea
and walked along more lively streets

the view from our hotel with blue mosque in the background
and an early morning view from our hotel of the bosphorus
all in all, it was a great trip!