#bascila

[gallade-x-treme]

fellas, is it gay to want to cook for & feed your girlfriend 😳

[kurayamineko]

[scotlandandbeyond]

Arriving in Europe; Leaving out of Asia: 3 Quick Days in Istanbul!

For a few decades now I’ve been dreaming of Turkey. In the late 1980’s many of my university compatriots, (leaving school with a lower debt load than I), spent anywhere from 2-6 months traveling Europe often finishing in Turkey and raving about it. Even now, when we told people we were going to Istanbul, every single person said how they LOVED Istanbul. Here’s where it gets tricky: I didn’t love it. I’m super glad I went, and I would visit other parts of Turkey, but I’ve seen it and I’m good. This post will be about what was amazing in Istanbul!

We stayed in Sultanahmet; the centre of Istanbul, so that we could walk everywhere. Our hotel was right across the road from both the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, with amazing views from our hotel’s rooftop terrace. We both fell in love with Hagia Sofia: it was a church for 900+ years, then a mosque for 300+ years. It’s now a museum and the Christian frescos are painstakingly being uncovered from the walls. The amazing chandeliers were added when it became a mosque. It’s now a museum and I think it’s been given that status so that both religions can be displayed without interference from the other.

From there we went to the Blue Mosque. Unfortunately almost all of it was covered by scaffolding and a fake ceiling while they do major renovations/repair, so it was a bit disappointing. Craig was thrilled that it is all carpeted, but the smell of foot odour was apparent. As a religious site, we had to dress appropriately.

That night we went to see the Whirling Dervishes. Again this is a religious ceremony so no photos were allowed, but it was amazing to see! We also visited the Bascila Cistern, (an underground cistern that provided Istanbul’s water for centuries). It has been recentlyd drained for renovation work.

Upon arrival we went to the Grand Bazar and were completely overwhelmed! We stayed probably an hour and a half, (long enough to buy Craig and new leather coat), but we probably only saw 5% of the entire thing. It’s amazing, overwhelming, but the coolest part for me was the building in which it’s housed.

Our last day saw us cruising the Bosphorus Straits. I’m really glad we did this as it took us out of Sultanahmet and gave us a different perspective on Istanbul. There are some stunning homes, neighbourhoods and buildings. We went up close to the European shore and came back close to the Asian shore.

I’ll post more photos from the cruise in my next blog post. Until then...

[aksparmar]

Bascila minor church piat kagyan philipines april 2018 (at Balisica Minore of Our Lady of Piat, Piat Cagayan) https://www.instagram.com/p/CNP0Iq3H0W9/?igshid=tbjpphqaxinh

[kurayamineko]

[kurayamineko]

[kurayamineko]