For Pete's fall break, I found an all-inclusive resort in Greece that looked dreamy. Opa and Oma were planning to come over to join us and their best flight option had them laying over in Istanbul. Istanbul had been high of Pete's travel list so we decided to meet them there for a few days before continuing on to Greece.
Of course, two days in Istanbul is not nearly enough time. That would be like going to NYC for two days. You might make it to a lot of the big tourist spots, but you miss out on seeing the day to day life of the city. Nevertheless, we followed the "Two Days in Istanbul" Lonely Planet advice and packed a lot in. There is a lot more to explore (and a lot more of Turkey to explore for that matter), but we really got a feel of this vibrant city.
We had a long travel day from Amsterdam and were happy to be sitting down with Opa and Oma for dinner. And of course they were happy to see Jude (and us) and visa versa.
We stayed at an AirBnB near Galata Tower, pictured below. We were woken up bright and early by the 6:15AM Call to Prayer blaring from the street below. We aren't in Amsterdam anymore!
We set out Sunday morning and the streets were very quiet.
We first went to the Hagia Sophia museum. Construction began in 537 and it was a Christian church until 1453 and then was a mosque from 1453 to 1931. In 1935 it became a museum. It is one of the great examples of Byzantine architecture and was magnificent!
The gold mosaics throughout the building were one of the most striking features.
As was the sheer scale of the building.
This kid has been to some cool places!
The view out to the Blue Mosque.
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