Best of Istanbul, Worst of Turkey

After hitting the big sights of Constantinople for a few days I have to say...meh.

No no, just kidding. It is incredible here. I mean the food alone. I have been eating two lunches just to keep up with the number of things I must eat before home time. Fish sandwich from the guy of the wharf, why of course!, but I was getting the boat to check out a restaurant, oh well I will eat again at the restaurant, and what are those seeds people are eating on the boat?, I will eat some to check that out, and after lunch at the restaurant there is a guy selling fried doughnut things with syrup, and coffee. Well, yes yes, I need to eat that. And on I go. Eating no longer is related to hunger. It seems my stomach is expanding well to meet these eating requirements. And I have stopped that swimming business. So onwards and outwards.


I have to say the big ticket sights of this city - Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque, which face off in Sultanahmet - absolutely hold up as world-class, the-size-and-beauty-blows-you-away kind of spaces. The fact that Istanbul is set on the water, with many a boat ride to be enjoyed, makes it easy on the eye, plus the whole Middle Eastern exoticism thing they got going on, while not being an overly unfamiliar a place, has a big pull.

 
Pictured from top to bottom:
Wow, interior of Aya Sofya;
Got water? - the very photogenic Basilica Cistern under the city, which was featured in From Russia with Love and built around 550AD;
Close-up Iznik tiles in Topkapi Palace, home of sultans, eunuchs, harems, concubines, crazed royals and murderous plots;
Istanbul University, yes we do need two clocks on the facade!;
Blue Mosque;
Pretty reflection in Aya Sofya;
Interior domes, Blue Mosque.


0 comments:

Post a Comment

 

Who?

Anna Metcalfe is a content maker, word writer and editor of things.