Refreshed after a good feel hours of sleep I arrived in Istanbul and proceeded smoothly through customs and immigration. Being a business class customer let me skip most of the customs line and I was in and out in 15 minutes.
Istanbul
Gimpy would be arriving an hour after me, and the plan was for me to wait for her and travel into Istanbul together. Once she arrived, we made our way to the Istanbul metro, paid for a transit card and hopped on the next train into the city. We had an uneventful ride into the city, and had a short walk to the hotel where we would start our GAdventures Absolute Turkey tour. We knew we would miss the initial group meeting with everyone due to our late flights into Turkey. But when we checked into the hotel, the concierge pointed us across the street to where our group was having dinner! We quickly dropped off our bags and joined the group, exchanging introductions. The group was a good mix and I was surprised to find a majority of them were fellow Canadians!
It was good to make new friends and share a meal together. Both Gimpy and I were pretty hungry after the long journey, I ordered a kebab plate and devoured it pretty quickly.
We spent a good amount of time just chatting with our neighbours and getting to know each other. People soon began to retire back to the Hotel. Gimpy and I decided to take a walk through the old town of Istanbul and eventually ended up walking along the water. We spent some time taking pictures of the city skyline and enjoyed the relaxed evening before turning in ourselves.
 Walking Around Istanbul
The next morning we grabbed a little bit of breakfast in the hotel cafe situated on the roof. From there we had a great morning view of the city.
After breakfast our entire group congregated in the lobby where we loaded our small bus with our big luggage. We then set off for a small walking tour of some of the major sights in Istanbul. Our first stop was at the Topkapi Palace grounds, we walked through the gates and passed by the Topkapi Palace Museum and past Hagia Irene.
Hagia Sophia
We wouldn’t have time to explore the museums today, but Gimpy and I intend to re-visit these places after the tour. Especially Hagia Sophia. This was further reinforced by our guide who suggested it as the “only place” you should visit if you only had one choice. So for now, it was just shots of its exterior.
Blue Mosque
We did, however, have time to visit the Blue mosque. This is an iconic mosque in Istanbul which is still an active mosque today. It is called the Blue Mosque because of blue tiles used in its interior construction. We spent a little time inside the mosque. While its a beautiful mosque, I did find that a large portion of it was being restored, and so a good chunk of it was behind constructions walls, which made for a muted experience. Regardless its certainly worth a visit and is quite grand even though we didn’t get to see it in all its glory.
From the Blue Mosque we took a stroll behind the mosque to the Hippodrome. This is where Roman chariot races would have occurred and you can still make out what the track would have looked like.
Sehzade Cag Kebap
It was lunch time and our guide “Ibo” took us to a small street full of restaurants. He pointed out some good ones, including one frequented by Russel Crowe. And one called Sehzade Cag Kebap that had a special type of kebab that you can only find in the East. Naturally, Gimpy and I gravitated towards the rarer food and gave it a shot. It was delicious! It was simple and certainly hit the spot after a morning of walking.
Spice Bazaar
From lunch we headed towards the water. We made our way to the spice bazaar near the water. Its a large hall with many different spice and sweet shops.
We visited on of Ibo’s friend’s sweet shops called Gozde. One of the things I wasn’t really keen to do was to try Turkish delight. My parents had gone to Turkey years ago and had brought some back which I didn’t are for. It was too sweet. However, when we tried some at this shop, I was amazed at how tasty it was. Ibo pretty much said my parents may have brought back the “cheap stuff”. So my intention now is to pick up a small box for my parents on my way out of the country. I’d love for them to compare and see if our family will have a second thought to this Turkish desert.
Ferry to Asia
After the spice market, we walked to the water where we boarded a ferry to the Asia side of Istanbul. It was a short 20 minute ride across the river, but it afforded us a great view of the Europe side of Istanbul. Our bus was waiting for us on the other side. We boarded it and proceeded to drive east out of the city.
We had three hour drive ahead of us towards Bolu. The drive was uneventful, most of us napped. After arriving, we quickly checked into our Hotel and got settled.
Bolpi Tava
A few of us met in the lobby to venture into the city with our guide to visit a local restaurant Called Bolpi Tava. The food was super tasty and we enjoyed our meals getting to know each other better.
We returned to our hotel to turn in for the evening. With another long drive ahead the next day as we headed towards Cappadocia, we were all eagerly anticipating the days ahead.
Istanbul looks so clean!! I love how everything is so nicely landscaped and there are such wide boulevards.
I think a lot of that is the old town where it is up kept quite well! There are other areas which are less clean!