Saturday, April 5, 2014

Istanbul- Last 2 Days

At the start of our 3rd day in Istanbul, we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise...
On our third day we went on an extremely long private tour with a somewhat strange tour guide who thought he was a professional photographer (*Note- Natali had to drastically edit every picture he took because he would mess with my settings so bad and most were completely unusable because they were so blurry or too dark). Natali and I learned a lot but we decided we prefer public tours because they are shorter and not so awkward.  Anyways...Here we are outside the Blue Mosque where they wash their feet before going in.
The Blue Mosque:

Inside the Topkapi Palace
View of Asia and the Bosphorus from the Topkapi palace.
Here we are just inside the Hagia Sophia and ready to tour through...
Inside the Hagia Sophia




Our tour guide.

Secret view of top of the Grand Bazaar (this should look familiar as it is in many movies ie: the new Taken and newest James Bond)

More Pomegranate Juice!! Yum!
Nuruosmaniye Mosque

On the Fourth day we took a bus out to the Kariye Museum (Chora Church)


Lunch at Asitane Restaurant, right next door to the museum (if you ever go,  we HIGHLY recommend this place)...
This cinnamon chicken along with some kind of pickled cabbage was (surprisingly) SO delicious.  My mouth is watering just looking at it.

Our lunch guest: (Can you believe it's a stray just living on the street?!)
Last thing of our Istanbul trip was a beautiful Bosphorus cruise.  Here are some pictures from it:

Orange juice for the weary traveler

Beylerbeyi Palace and the Gate to the Bosphorus









 Nearing the end of our boat ride

Ended our day at a rooftop restaurant with a great view and great food