Good Morning Istanbul. Wow! What a difference the light of day makes! Istanbul is a beautiful city and we loved exploring it. This is in front of the
Hagia Sofia (pronounced Eye-a -
sofia) - but we didn't explore it until the next day.
We learned something on this trip that I don't think I realized before. All of these sculptures we see that are a white or off white color- most of them used to be colored. This replica behind us shows what it might have looked like before.
And this is what it looks like now. You can actually see the remnants of color on this
sarcophagus. Anyway, I thought that was interesting. This particular
sarcophagus shows Alexander the Great in battle. He is the one with the lion skin on his head.
Loved this Trojan Horse the kids climbed around in.
Next off was the
Topkapki Palace. These guys really knew how to live it up. There were huge couches and beds with pillows to allow them to lounge around on and greet their visitors.
Everything was so ornate and beautiful. The walls are covered with colorful tiles.
This is a view from the palace overlooking the city.
Cute
Katry!
Aren't the tiles on the walls amazing!?! Even the wooden doors were so opulent.
These last two pictures were taken inside the Harem- which is where the Sultan's mom, wives, favorites and concubines all lived. They had quite the fancy set up.
The Blue Mosque in the daylight.
We
trekked halfway across the city to visit
Suleiman the
Magnificent's Mosque- only to find that the majority of it was under reconstruction. I had to wear this
pashmina in order to go inside.
His mosque certainly looked Magnificent from the outside. On the way back to the city center we walked through the Grand Bazaar. This was an amazing
labyrinth of shops. You could truly get lost in there. Somehow we made it out. I loved the shop keepers who hollered at us, "Come here- Let us help you spend your money." In fact just about every
restaurant or store had someone outside trying to pull your business in. It took a little bit to get used to the
pushiness.
We found a really delicious place for dinner. They served these yummy, warm pitas with cucumber
Taziki sauce. Tasty! Then we headed back to our home away from home and played some Hokey 5 after watching a little soccer on the
tv.
Good Morning Istanbul. Wow! What a difference the light of day makes! Istanbul is a beautiful city and we loved exploring it. This is in front of the Hagia Sofia (pronounced Eye-a -sofia) - but we didn't explore it until the next day.
We learned something on this trip that I don't think I realized before. All of these sculptures we see that are a white or off white color- most of them used to be colored. This replica behind us shows what it might have looked like before.
And this is what it looks like now. You can actually see the remnants of color on this sarcophagus. Anyway, I thought that was interesting. This particular sarcophagus shows Alexander the Great in battle. He is the one with the lion skin on his head.
Loved this Trojan Horse the kids climbed around in.
Next off was the Topkapki Palace. These guys really knew how to live it up. There were huge couches and beds with pillows to allow them to lounge around on and greet their visitors.
Everything was so ornate and beautiful. The walls are covered with colorful tiles.
This is a view from the palace overlooking the city.
Cute Katry!
Aren't the tiles on the walls amazing!?! Even the wooden doors were so opulent.
These last two pictures were taken inside the Harem- which is where the Sultan's mom, wives, favorites and concubines all lived. They had quite the fancy set up. 
The Blue Mosque in the daylight.
We trekked halfway across the city to visit Suleiman the Magnificent's Mosque- only to find that the majority of it was under reconstruction. I had to wear this pashmina in order to go inside.
His mosque certainly looked Magnificent from the outside. On the way back to the city center we walked through the Grand Bazaar. This was an amazing labyrinth of shops. You could truly get lost in there. Somehow we made it out. I loved the shop keepers who hollered at us, "Come here- Let us help you spend your money." In fact just about every restaurant or store had someone outside trying to pull your business in. It took a little bit to get used to the pushiness.
We found a really delicious place for dinner. They served these yummy, warm pitas with cucumber Taziki sauce. Tasty! Then we headed back to our home away from home and played some Hokey 5 after watching a little soccer on the tv. 
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