Blogs from Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, Middle East - page 8

Today was a busy day! I woke early, took a relaxing shower, and went to the roof for a nee breakfast of eggs, olives, cucumbers and cheese. In the reviews for the hotel, some people complained about the breakfast, but this is typical arabic breakfast - a lot of light options. There were meats, bread, cereal, yogurt, fried potatoes as well. We then walked to my friends hotel nearby and waited for our personal tour to arrive. Sibel was our guide and she was fantastic! She seemed a little shy to start but soon she just became a wealth of valuable information. We started at the area of the Hippodrome and she explained the previous chariot races and the extent of it. She knew not to go to the Blue Mosque at the moment because it ... read more

Istanbul is a most interesting city. Within a few blocks there are magnificent towering mosques all perched on the edge of the water. Yesterday we visited the Tokapi Palace and roamed through the rooms of the Harem. Here the Sultan kept up to 300 concubines. I could hear the men in the crowd discussing the possibilities! The grounds and buildings are beautiful and especially so at this time of year with garden beds full of brightly coloured tulips. We've all jostled through the Spice market, oh to have fun buying some of the wares; visited the underground Cistern and my high school classes came back to my at the Hagia Sophia. We have discovered some interesting areas on the Beyogli side of the city. Great lanes of bars, crowded with people sitting watching the world go ... read more

It has been longtime since I decided to go to Istanbul. I used to check everyday flights, hotels information and tourism blogs. But, finally I bought my ticket for December 2012. I did this travel by my own.. "Are you crazy?; how could you dare to travel by yourself, a woman, in an islamic country?". But, trust me, it has been amazing!! First of all, the city is just gorgeous; I have too many words to describe Istanbul: all is full of colors, magical, exotic, enigmatic.. I was so excited since I landed at the Atatürk airport; but I had some trouble with turkish language. I took the subway until Meter station and then metrobus until Acibadem station. That was so hard 'cause my pronunciation in turkish was awful, and nobody could speak english (I have ... read more

Our second day in Istanbul was dedicated to exploring the 3 royal historical delights - Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and The Blue Mosque. All these 3 places were built and used by the Turkish Sultans a few centuries ago but even today, the splendor of the architecture and interior awe people; I wonder what they have been like in their original grandeur days! These 3 places are situated very close to one another- a walking distance of a few hundred metres each. We were extremely lucky to have chosen a hotel just in the centre of this trio. We started the day early by going to the most majestic and most famous tourist spot of Turkey- Topkapi Palace. This palace was the royal residence of the Sultans and was built right beside the unimaginably blue sea. ... read more

Another great day! We started off the day with a trip to Bogazici University (pronounced Bow-OZ-a-chee... never would have figured that one out) because that's where Shahar is spending his semester! The campus is absolutely beautiful! It is on the top of a hill about a 25 minnute drive from our hotel and there is a gorgeous view of the Bosphorus. He took us around campus a little bit and because of the holiday no one was around, which was kind of nice. We walked down to get a nice view of the water and a view of part of an old fortress called the Rumeli Fortress and then we got flooded with cats. Yes cats - SO MANY cats. Because we were the only people there, they started to follow us around campus - I ... read more