My first day off to see the city!

I woke up at 6:30 am and enjoyed a cup of traditional Turkish tea; at 7 am, we were off! Prof. Dr. Mete Duren drove us to his office by the “Amerikan Hospitol” and we met with his friend who is a historian and also has guided tours for 25 years! 25 YEARS! J Mete had arranged for me to have a private tour with him, how kind and generous!

We first went to Dolmabahce Sarayi (palace) and

we were guided through (after covering our feet with bags of course!) through a BEAUTIFUL palace. The crystal staircase was GORGEOUS! The sultan died in the

palace due to liver failure, and they actually showed us the room he died in, as well as his bathroom still displaying his medicines! I find it interesting that in the ottoman culture, men and women have seperate living areas and bedrooms! This palace is also home of one of the worlds’ largest chandeliers, weighing

in at 4 tons! Obama has recently visited the ambassadorial

reception hall here! …we were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace….sorry!

Next, we went on a bosphorus boat cruise- the water is the most BEAUTIFUL green/blue I

have ever seen! We saw a lot of beautiful places, and it was very interesting because I was literally in 2 different continents at once! One side of the bosphorus is Europe, and the other is Asia! (I won’t ever be spending much time on the asian side)

After the boat cruise we went to a very traditional, nice kebab restaurant facing the bosphorus- we were served SO many traditional Turkish dishes and I was a “big girl” and tried EVERYTHING! …and everything tasted incredible! The first dish was very similar to your everyday bread and butter before a meal (Or bread and olive oil at my house! :P) Basically, they bring out the hot bread filled like a balloon with air, you tear off a piece, put butter, goat cheese, and walnuts inside, and enjoy!

The salad is tomato, onions, and some other things, but no lettuce. The dressing was really interesting (and good) because they use olive oil, but instead of vinegar with it, they use fresh pomegranate juice with it! (mom, try this at home!)

After having several meats brought out, I was full, but then dessert came.

The most delicious thing I have ever tasted…I can’t even explain it! It did have syrup and cheese in it though, but boy was it tasty!!!!!! (It is called "Kundfe") The green on top is pistachio;

Pistachio’s are VERY popular in Turkey, and they are cheap because SO many come from here! Turkey is known for having some of the best pistachios in the world!

We moved on to the “blue” mosque, actually named Sultanahmet Camii (Camii means mosque) built in 1617. Before taking our shoes off and entering, I learned a lot about the hippodrome, where a very old structure from Egypt is-only 1/3 left standing today due to earthquakes.

There is also another structure with only a small remains left in the hippodrome. (wish I could recall every detail to share but I had to pack in a lot of info in one day!)(the "blue" mosque)

Ah, now on the the beautiful Haghia Sophia!!!!!! First off, before the Haghia Sophia was built, a different Christian church was in it’s place-it was torn down because Christianly was outlawed. Eventually, the church Haghia Sophia replaced it (although some remains of the old church can still be seen) It took less than 6 years to build this MASSIVE gorgeous church- mostly because instead of building everything from scratch, they imported a lot of already built things like stones, slabs, and columns…you will be able to see how a lot of the colors are different in the pictures because they are taken from different places. 2 of the 7 wonders of the world have pieces hidden away as part of the building! Also-notice the gold ceiling- the reason it is SO well preserved I learned, it because it has not touched air! On both sides of the very thin gold, there is a thin piece of glass, and this is on every single tiny piece of gold!

Also, the Haghia Sophia was converted to a Mosque because Islam is the central religion- Because Mosque’s have very specific requirements (AKA a sign to Mecca (to face during prayer), 8 names displayed in arabic(Allah and muhammed are 2, I don’t remember the rest) and a narrow staircase leading to a small stage for someone to lead prayer) the had to make a few changes! First, they covered up all of the pictures, and then painted over the Cross’s with artwork. If you look closely you can see the faded crosses on the ceilings, and Because the Haghia Sophia is no longer a practicing Mosque, the material covering the pictures have been removed as well. In the main dome ceiling, 4 angels are displayed to “protect” and their faces were all covered with gold medallions- so far, only one medallion has been removed to display one angels face.

We then visited an underground aqueduct- although back in the day it was ground level! There were many fish in the water, and apparently people used to come scoop water right out of the aqueduct to drink, and seeing fish meant that the water was not poisonous and was clean. Many artists display their art on top of the water, but it was very dark and difficult to take good pictures, it was eerie but very cool!

Turkish ice cream….delicious. We sat down for a small break at a traditional ice cream eatery outside on a busy street. I was a bit taken aback as a plate with 4 “slices” of ice cream was put in front of me, one looking kind of like a sausage?? It was then explained that the ice cream is made differently and is tougher- you have to eat it with a fork and knife! …it was SO GOOD! ..by this point I wasn’t surprised because so far everything has been amazing! There was chocolate, Vanilla almond, pistachio (of course), and the 4^th was actually a baklava made with pistachio’s…YUM!

Then…GRAND BAZAAR! ( Kapali Carsisi) this covered marketplace has over 4000 shops and dates back hundreds of years! They sell EVERYTHING and as you walk through everyone yells at you to come buy their stuff because it is better than everyone elses stuff! Goodness…

The guide explained to me that a lot of people were speaking to me in Russian because they thought I was Russian! (I feel like I hear this a lot? I am not Russian though!) It is really amazing because in the grand bazaar people are from all over the world, so the shop owners can generally speak many languages!

After the grand bazaar, we went the the nearby Misirv Carsisi (Egyptian Spice Market) and I was blown away by the HUGE portions of middle eastern spices all around me…I think mom would be in heaven here!!! We stopped in a store of one of the guides’ friends, and they gave me a seat and served me apple tea (yum!) and traditional Turkish delight! Also, sent me on my merry way with a handful of the best pistachio’s I’ve ever had! The guide explained in any shop they will always offer you tea or coffee, even if you buy something, it is just the culture! spices at the misir carsisi mom would love! never mind the grumpy looking men! :P

We hopped in a “Taksi” and headed the Dr. Duren’s office where he dropped me off. By then it was 7 pm already! I had a busy, amazing, fun day! I gave him all my thanks and headed back to the house with Mete. Tomorrow I am returning to the Grand Bazaar to check it out some more since it is my half day! I think I will get some more ice cream too! :P

It's now 10 am and i'm off to spend some more time in the grand bazaar and spice market!

Gorusuruz!