A Turkish Delight

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Arriving in Istanbul was better than I imagined! The streets were lined with tulips everywhere. This week is also the tulip festival that they have every spring. Driving down Kennedy Street was absolutely gorgeous with the red, pink, white, yellow, purple, and orange tulips. We rounded the corner and drove between the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia (Church of St. Sophia). That first night we ate at a restaurant in a hotel that over looked the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia and watched the sun set over them and then they were lit when the sun was down. The view was just amazing, one of the best I've seen so far.

So far in Istanbul I have been to the Archaeological museum (which I would argue is one of the best in the world), ate Turkish pizza, visited the Hippodrome (open area beside the Blue Mosque), went inside the Blue Mosque (the most beautiful pieces of religious buildings I have seen so far), the Hagia Sophia which was first a church then changed into a mosque and is now a museum, into the Basilica cisterns which are lit by red light and cast an eerie glow, saw the Whirling Dervishes (actually a religious ceremony and should not be treated as an event purely for entertainment), went to a hookah bar (no that is not smoking pot or opium of any sort), Went to a church (forgot the name at the moment) with the best mosaics I have ever seen, had an audience with the Patriarch of the Greek/Eastern Orthodox church, visited the palace in the center of Istanbul, went and haggled in the Grand Bazaar, watched a beautiful sunset over the Sea of Marmara and Istanbul, and went to the site of ancient Troy from Homer's Iliad.

The terrain here actually reminds me alot of back home with the rolling hills, flat plains, and similar looking trees and grasses. The food here is also very good with more of a spice than the food I am used to having in Greece. The Golden Horn Hotel is a nice place to stay with very decent breakfasts and the Turkish black tea as well as the apple tea is something that I will be bringing home. I can hardly wait to see more of Turkey outside of the big cities.

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Comments

[Jennifer]

Hookahbar
What exactely is a Hookah bar then?

[Ingrid Anne]

Hookah Bar
This Hookah bar was a bar/coffee house setting that serves tea, coffee, and other drinks. They then had different hookah options for flavored tobacco to smoke. The smoke and tobacco are filtered through water and inhaled through a long hose that is connected to the center piece just above the water. Some of the different flavors include melon, apple, cherry, mint, orange, cappuccino, and many others. This particular bar had bean bag chairs as the seating outside under an awning. It is a pretty interesting thing to do and experience. You can also find these bars in other cities as well. I went to one in Iraklion, Crete too which had more of an Arabian feel.