Istanbul

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A night cruise on the Bosphorus strait - Istanbul

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The previous post in this series is here..

After visiting the Topkapi place on our second afternoon in Istanbul, we got back to the hotel to catch up with the little one who was busy studying. Did a quick shower, change into nicer clothes and off we went on an Uber to the docks. We had booked a Viator cruise on the Bosphorus strait which included a vegetarian dinner and live entertainment.

We were flanked on either side by a group of desi boys who had all started working recently after graduating and a family from Germany with two little kids. We were chit chatting and before we knew it, there was some really good entertainment. We even got a visual of the swirling dervishes. Not posting pictures as it is all in the video.

Between the food and entertainment, we went out to the deck to get pictures. The iconic golden gate looking bridge that shows up in every Turkish serial that San watches was there in front of us! It is really as beautiful to see the coastline as it is in the serials!

There was a photographer who took shots of all of us and obviously sold the nice pictures to us at the end of the cruise. It was more of a memorabilia for me. My girls are always pretty in my eyes, but to see them from another persons lens made me smile.

The gallery of lights as seen from the cruise..

A few other pictures from this cruise and on our way back to the hotel.. where the mosques light up the place.

A video highlights reel of the cruise and the entertainment..

Strongly recommend this cruise if you visit Istanbul. Given my allergies and food restrictions, they gave me enough to eat to keep me going for the two plus hours on the cruise. We found a nice driver called Mustafa who took us from the hotel to the place and he told us “god willing, I will get to take you back when you return as my house is close to your hotel”.. and sure enough, god willed for him. We hailed for an Uber in the crowd and Mustafa shows up!

We had a really great time as a family on this cruise. It was chilly when we got out. We were going to wake up and go for one last interesting experience the following morning before leaving the city.. god willing, will write that post tonight.

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An 83000 square meter palace - Istanbul Day 2 afternoon

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The previous post in this series is here..

Afer a quick stop at our hotel to wash and change clothes we had to make it back to the German water fountain to meet our guide and other group members. The little one who was busy studying for the exam of a lifetime, decided to stay put in the hotel. The three of us made it in time and went for a long long walk with the guide to Topkapi palace.

This was a monstrous palace. There were way too many sections and this is also a very large museum. There were sections that showed life as it was during the Sultanate 500 years ago, to the French style addition in early 1900’s.

This is some diamond on display at the museum! Not going to go into the details here.. but it is 86 Karats and is called the Spoonmaker’s diamond! Has a very interesting story behind it!

Two vertical pano shots and a horizontal pano.. the views were amazing both inside and outside the palace. We would have spent more time here if we were not on such a tight schedule and it was cooler outside.

We covered as much as our legs would let us. There is no AC in the rooms. On a hot afternoon where temperatures were in the 90’s it was tough covering what we did. Not adding too many pictures of the artifacts save for a very special diamond! You can see the entire experience in the video highlight reel..

After this the tour was done. We could disperse when we wanted. So we took an Uber from the main road and went to the Galata Tower. This was one attraction that was on the other side of the bridge. Once we reached the tower, the crowd was overwhelming. The line to go up the tower was more than 500 people. So we decided to skip going up. We saw a nice rooftop restaurant right next to the tower and had some snacks while enjoying the views of the tower and Istanbul.

Once done we had a tough time finding an uber back (this place is extremely crowded). You are better off walking out a few blocks to get the Uber. We made it back in time to the hotel for another change of clothes. We had an hour to take another long ride to go on our last adventure for the day!

That one alone has 250 photos.. so might be a few days before I edit them all and post..

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Amazing places of worship- Istanbul Day 2

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The previous post in this series is here..

Day 2 started with a nice breakfast at our hotel and we walked to the tour guide for an all day walking tour of Old Istanbul. Our Viator guide came on time and told us that we will have an hour and a half break. The other two folks in our tour (from Kerala, India) had opted for lunch while we didn’t. So he was going to give us a break. That meant everyone in our group was making their own plan for the rest of the day already! The kids are no longer kids, you see..

We walked through the Hippodrome area, got a lot of history of the place, how Christianity came to be what it is today, how Islam came to be what it is today, etc. One thing was certain.. no matter how big the empires and how great the buildings, time has a way of changing empires, religion and we are moving forward.

The grandeur of the two mosques we visited.. got my backbends for the day done, taking these pano shots.

First the few photos of us.. I just went nuts taking photos of the blue mosque and Hagia Sophia. These buildings are architectural marvels that are places of worship. The idea is to inspire awe, and that they do effortlessly as soon as you walk in. They humble you!

The portrait picture gallery..

And the gallery of landscape photos..

After the tour was done, we were taken to a multistory leather goods shop (apparently has a tie up with the tour for our rates). We got treated to a catwalk show of leather clothes. Given none of us in the family wear leather, we just enjoyed the experience, walked around the store, then went to the rooftop to take in views of the city. There was no obligation to buy and I could get Ramarajan shirts from 0 to 255 on the RGB color scale for the price of one of these jackets.

Then we walked to a nice restaurant called Sultana Cafe, which had vegetarian options. Our guide did good by taking us to this place. They had rice, aaloo parathas Turkish cousin, made right in front of us! and other veggie dishes that delighted the family. (also we saw Turkish crows that look like desi crows but have brown, black and gray feathers.. they are also called Kaa Kaa!!)

The photo I cherish the most from this days trip…

After this it was back to the hotel. It was hot out and we all wanted to clean up, rest our feet before meeting our tourguide for the afternoon session.

A video highlight reel of the mornings tour..

It was getting really hot and we made a dash for our hotel.. we had 90 minutes before catching our guide at the post lunch stop..

will pick it up there tomorrow.

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