Istanbul

This is how the first day of our trip to Istanbul should have started. But fog kept us grounded in Munich. Pegasus Air reimbursed us by putting us up in a fancy hotel for the night!

How fancy was the hotel you ask? The TV's in our rooms said our names on the screen. That's how fancy!

So our first night in "Istanbul" was spent outside Munich eating from a gourmet buffet, raiding the minibar, and watching Bayern Munich defeat Arsenal 2-0.

 After nearly a day spent at the Munich airport, the view of Istanbul (without fog) from the plane the next day was a wonderful site to finally see.

We rented an apartment in the historic Taksim neighborhood of Istanbul.

This was the sunset from our balcony.

Our first night in town, we ventured out and found ourselves at the Alaaddin Cafe. We had a private meal because this was the only table in the small restaurant. We felt like Anthony Bourdain.

Chef Alaaddin prepared us a wonderful vegetarian meal and later added us to his Facebook page. 

Then we explored the city's night life.

We smoked a little Hookah.

Michl was ok at it.

Doug definitely wasn't a natural.

Courtney on the other hand...

The next day we visited Hagia Sophia.

Hagia Sophia was constructed from 532-537AD.

 For nearly a thousand years, it was the largest structure in the world.

It served as an Eastern Orthodox Catherdral from 537-1453.

From 1204-1261, however, the Latin Empire converted it into a Roman Catholic cathedral.

In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks. 

The city's name was changed to Istanbul and Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque.

That's how it remained until 1935 when the building became a secular museum.

Hagia Sophia remains the greatest example of Byzantine architecture in the world. 

Like Istanbul, Hagia Sophia is a place where eastern and western ideologies collide. Every ruling culture has left a physical imprint on the building.

Oh, and it's pretty old too. Here's Courtney standing in front of a lustration urn used to hold water. It's carved from a single block of marble and was made around 400BC. That's older than your grandma! 

Pretty cool

Time to make our way to the Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque was built by Sultan Ahmed (1609-1616) as a way to calm God after losing a war with Persia.

It is bigger than Hagia Sophia.

And is still an active place of worship.

So sad clown flowers and kissing are strictly forbidden!

After leaving the Blue Mosque

We hit up the Grand Bizzarre where we bought tea and other goodies. 

Burger King mosque! East meets west again!

Wait! I thought McDonald's was the home of the Hamburgler!

Later we set out for the Galata Tower.

To get there we had to cross the Golden Horn.

Not only does this body of water separate the north and south parts of the city, but it also marks the border of Europe and Asia. 

We walked over the Galata Bridge, but stopped in the middle and did this for a while...

Now I'm in Europe!

Now I'm in Asia!!!

Courtney & the local fishermen found this to be hilarious. 

The views from the Galata Tower were outstanding.

This is the view looking south

This is looking north. You can see the Golden Horn, Galata Bridge, Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

Now you can see two pretty sweet travel companions! 

Later we made our way back to Taksim.

This is the center of Taksim Square.

There was a large police presence there.

That is because Taksim Square has been the primary location for large anti government protests.

 In fact, on the day we left, there were riots on this main street leading to Taksim Square. We spent every night here, so we were lucky to have left town that morning. 

But we couldn't bothered by all that political stuff. We got what we came for... PUDDING!

Back in Munich, we celebrated our trip with Sloe Gin & Lemon.

Oh, and we finally had that nice low key dinner with friends.