This past weekend Jenn and I went to Istanbul, Turkey.  She had a work conference and I flew over for just weekend.  We had a friend watch Walnut for those few days.  It’s hard to leave him behind, but I wasn’t sure if Walnut would be well received in Turkey and I was pretty sure he’d be stuck in the hotel all day.

We hired a guide for the day on Saturday to show us some of the major sites and give us some history about them.  We started by heading to the Old Bazaar so Jenn could pick up a scarf to wear for our many mosque visits.  A short walk further and we were at the Blue Mosque.  Unfortunately for us, we could not see much as the mosque is undergoing restoration.  After the Blue Mosque, we walked through the area that was the Hippodrome of Constantinople where there are obelisks from an ancient era.

Next we went to the Basilica Cistern.  The cistern was really interesting.  Of course, it’s underground so it’s very dark and a bit spooky with the Hen’s eye column and Medusa heads.  This cistern is huge, and could hold 2.8 million cu ft of water.

Afterwards, we went to Hagia Sophia. It was huge!  But it, too was undergoing renovations.  The Hagia Sophia has been both a mosque and a cathedral in it’s history but was converted to a museum in 1935.  We also visited Topkapi Palace. After which we went to the Grand Bazaar.

Sunday, we visited the Suleymaniye Mosque.  We arrived during prayer so we sat at a cafe terrace across the street for awhile.  This mosque was most recently restored in 1956 and was really beautiful.  We also walked through several graveyards (which are near many of the mosques).

Before catching our flight back Monday we saw the Little Hagia Sophia Mosque.

Though we were only in Istanbul for a few days, we saw a lot of amazing, ancient architecture and tasted many different incredible foods.  Istanbul was great!