Western Turkey

Our flight from Cairo to Istanbul was easy and we enjoyed Egypt Air except that I think it was the most turbulent we have ever encountered! The airport in Istanbul was mobbed with incoming visitors but was fairly efficient. It already felt like a different world! Getting from the airport into the tourist part of the city proved easy also using the super efficient tram system there. I have to say, everywhere we have been in Asia (Bali excluded because most natives there don't travel around the Island), the Middle East, and Eastern Europe has really great public tranportation which most people use extensively. In most of these places they just don't have the kind of traffic congestion we are so accustomed to where we come from (USA - East and West coasts). We were really impressed with how much everyone utilizes public transit - even when they could drive. We are getting so used to using mass transit ourselves now it will be interesting to see if we can stay in this habit when we get back home....

After the heat of Cairo, Istanbul was literally a breath of fresh air!! Wow!! Great sea breezes, the bluest waters all around, I MEAN SO MUCH WATER!! After a few days of wandering around we both decided it was the MOST BEAUTIFUL CITY we have ever seen. Now it's true we haven't been to Europe, we haven't seen Paris, or other reputable cities but Istanbul is impressive like no other: everywhere there are hills, green, views, clean amazingly blue waters and gigantic old Mosques. The skylines all over are in the realm of exotic but you probably already guessed that. And walking around the most touristy area while full of frequent but 'friendly' harrassment by carpet sellers and restauranteurs is so full of awe-inspiring sights I didn't care. But we've heard other travelers say they like places like Egypt more because it isn't so westernized. Well, I wouldn't say that, they are just different cultures, but Turkey is definitely more westernized in many places and they have their act very together in regards to their tourist industry. Discovering how many ancient sites the country has it is not hard to understand why. Their approach toward Islam is also different than the arab countries and is visibly more liberal - while most Turkish are Moslems they practice the religion as they like - for example most of the men here drink beer, something we did not see in Cairo. The women that we saw in Istanbul dressed in full black or wearing coats over their long skirts were tourists from other countries. Turkish women in the cities or tourist areas dress like western women and most don't wear head scarves even. We only saw this and a more conservative dress code in the towns and villages. What is like any other Islamic country, is the 5 times daily call to prayer which solemnly issues from the loud speakers on every minaret of every mosque at regular interval throughout the day and evening. And if you happening to be standing, sitting, walking or sleeping too close to those speakers it can be very annoying and canned sounding to say the least!

Just to emphasize again how much water there is all around Istanbul and the unusual physical features of the city: the part of the city (all the tourist areas) on the European continent is cut into by an inlet of the Bosporus and the Bosporus divides the European from the Asian side. The Bosporus also joins the Black Sea to the north of both continents and the city, with the Sea of Marmara to the south. The Marmara connects to the Aegean Sea which flows into the Mediterranean Sea. All of these waters are very beautiful and appear quite clean. The photos we were able to take just can't do the watery city scapes much justice. This was the ancient city of Constantinople in the days of the old Roman Empire and the capital of the Empire after the Rome and the European part of the Empire fell.

We spent 6 nights in Istanbul and had a great time going to the major tourist sites. You can see from the pictures the places we visited. Topkapi Palace was large and really like a small city. The private quarters of the sultans, the sultans' mothers and some of the living areas and quarters where business was conducted were beautiful but it was all less opulent than we or you would expect. The blue mosque interior is very impressive with detailed tiles everywhere but it was hard to get in there and look for long as many people go there for the prayer times. I went in

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