Istanbul: Where East meets West

After living in Turkey for over a year and a half, Shane and I finally made it to Istanbul.  It seems like everyone we know had already been there, and they all kept raving about how much they loved it.  We wanted to go, but something else kept coming up.  My Peds boards.  TDY to the States.  Trips to the States, Germany.  An opportunity to go to Israel.  It just kept being put on the back burner, and we kept thinking to ourselves, "We'll have time to go later."  Well suddenly we were at less than 6 months from our PCS date and we still hadn't made it there, and I said to Shane "We have GOT to go to Istanbul!"

As luck would have it, Turkish Airlines was having an awesome deal on plane tickets.  We got two roundtrip tickets for a total of $150!  I found a quaint hotel in the Sultanahmet District (the old part of the city), and we were ready for our weekend trip.  Here are pictures of our trip:

The Basilica Cistern, an underground water system. 

The Blue Mosque (the gnome made an appearance!)

Inside the Blue Mosque.

Kumru Hotel, where we stayed.  It was so modern and artsy! 

The Hagia Sophia, a famous site in Istanbul.

We stumbled upon this alley & did an impromptu photo shoot.

This was near Taksim Square.

Galata Tower. 

Chora Church, built circa 1st Century!

The Grand Bazaar.

Shane and I agreed that this was one of our favorite trips ever, second to our honeymoon.  It was such a relaxing weekend, and the city of Istanbul has such charm.  The architecture is beautiful, and there is so much culture to discover there.  We had fun shopping at the Grand Bazaar, and we came home with a new carpet, which is always fun.  :)  Our hotel hosts were really nice, too.  They made our stay SO pleasant.  We had breakfast on the terrace in the mornings, and they even had homemade banana bread for us, which was nice.  I got to practice some of my photography skills, and what better place to do it than Istanbul?!  It drove Shane a little bit nuts, especially when I would spend 15 or 20 minutes on one shot... but he tried hard to be patient.

Next destination: Greece!  Stay tuned!!