Walking around Istanbul

Arriving back in Istanbul from the Turkish country side, we were excited to see what the ancient city had in store for us.

A panorama between the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sohpia

After flying in from Pamakkale, we had a few hours in Istanbul and were still a bit hungry. Finding a bar still open within walking distance of our hotel was easy, and they even had some live music to boot. There we had a classic Turkish dish that is made inside of a clay pot known as " Testi Kebabi".

Such a cool dish capping off a great day with some great Testees

 Finally we got some sleep after that and woke up the next morning for our Historical tour of Istanbul.

Usually the takeaway comes at the end, but I'm going to stick it here for importance. If you ever have a day in Istanbul, take a walking tour of this area around Sultan Ahmet. So much history took place within such a small space.

Kicking things off would be, oh I don't know, the Blue Mosque.

A breathtaking piece of architecture

Now, I've gotten the question a couple of times if Katie had to cover her head while in Turkey or anything like that. The answer to that is no, women are free to dress how they wish, except when entering religious buildings like this. It was not a big deal, after all it is their beliefs, we do not wish to offend anyone. So upon entering, they had dispensers for bags to put your shoes in and scarfs to cover your head if needed. Everyone was very kind about it, and while a little crowded, the Blue Mosque is absolutely worth seeing.

Row upon row of stained glass

The hanging lights used to be filled with oil lamps

The artwork on the ceiling is masterfully done

Tiny Golden model of the courtyard

Truly incredible the Blue Mosque, to be standing after nearly 400 years and still be used to this day. When it was being built, they were going for a building with overwhelming size and elegance. They certainly nailed it.


After grabbing some lunch, we walked the short distance to the Hagia Sophia Museum.

Not so far apart in this panorama

What was once a Greek church, then turned into an Imperial Mosque, and now is an awe inspiring museum. The dome was so large that it collapsed under itself a few times in its history and the entire building had to have reinforcing struts built to support the enormous weight.

Inside view of the dome

Renovations meant scaffolding dominated the inside of the museum. Allegedly, the renovations would be finished in 2012 and there are signs still up showing this. However, they are no where close to finishing their work. Too many tea breaks our guide speculated.

Beautiful chandelier's hanging just above the ground

Eve and Wall-E taking a look from the balcony

Much of the original artwork has lasted and is still gorgeous.

The Hagia Sohpia is an interesting piece of history. Seeing what was a Roman Church for nearly a thousand years and then a mosque for the better part of another 600 years. Sure it may have been rebuilt a few times, but the sheer scale of history that happened there is astounding.

After a brief look into the Grand Bazaar, which is the largest market in the world and is home to quite literally thousands of shops, we made our way back to our hotel for some well earned rest.

The Grand Bazaar, at least a very small portion of it

But soon, nighttime was upon us as well as hunger. For now we enter the food showcase of this post. Be warned, the rest of this page will be about eating food with pictures. This encompasses the rest of our trip in Istanbul... And it was all delicious.

For dinner the night after our historical tour, we actually booked ourselves at the Four Seasons hotel close by.Their restaurant is extremely high rated online, and  after eating there, it is apparent why. This was also Katie's birthday dinner, so I'm glad it turned out to be our best meal.

Even their place mats were awesome. I want a set.

Delicious Chicken dish with a creamy sauce

Gnochhi

No birthday dinner is complete without a grand dessert. And yes I checked to make sure I didn't put a grand desert. 

Cookie with pistachio ice-cream and chocolate sauce, only fancier

And of course birthday wishes to Katie with the best tasting lava cake ever

With a little bit of Raki for everyone to top it off, this day was awesome and we learned so much of the history of Istanbul. But our next day was a culinary tour of the city. Yup, we would start in the morning with breakfast, then walk to other shops and restaurants in Istanbul tasting everything the city has to offer. 

So we started the with The Spice Market the next morning. 

  

A little bit like the Grand Bazaar in scale, but entirely dedicated to food. Here you could see all kinds of things being offered to eat.

Our first stop they served us everything Turkish people eat for Breakfast, including a buffalo cheese covered in honey that is to die for.

Traditional Turkish breakfast offering

After breakfast we left the European side of Istanbul and spent the rest of the tour on the Asian side. For this we just got on the metro and took a short twenty minute ride over.

We would of taken a ferry to the Asian side, however the wind was crazy that day and had shut them all down. You can see the extreme surf in the video below. 

Once on the Asian side we explored a less touristy side of Turkey in the neighborhood of Kadikoy.

The next stop was a sweet shop, dedicated to candy

Candy!

This place prided itself on bringing little known old recipes back to light with a modern twist.

Very nice establishment and we'll probably find time to go there again

Fish market

This was a pickle shop. Pickled everything basically. Not really my taste, but very popular in Turkey, including pickle juice

We were only getting started

Here we had a fish stand with muscles and oysters. These were cheap and delectable

My favorite of course were the fried variety

I have raved on here before about my affinity of Tatkat, which serves Doner. Here we have the far fancier version of them.

They pride themselves on having much higher quality meat, kind of like a gourmet hamburger shop

Again, very tasty and the meat was indeed of a good cut

And now we get into the much sweeter portion of the tour. 

The name explains this stop

Yes very traditional baklava, covered in pistachio and syrup. Very sweet and a common dessert in this part of the world.

Finally the big finish, Turkish Ice-Cream.

Mado was considered to be the only "Chain" restaurant  we visited on our tour, because they just have the best Turkish ice-cream. 

No, i'm not being inept, Turkish Ice-Cream is extremely hard, so much so that you must cut it with a knife and fork. This doesn't make it any less flavorful, in fact quite the opposite. 

The tougher texture adds another layer of flavor.

I said earlier if you have one day in Istanbul, go to the historical sites. If you have two days, absolutely do a culinary tour as well. We highly recommend Istanbul on Food, they are a small company but have private tours and give you a clear look into Turkish cuisine. After their tour, you will truly understand how people in Turkey eat, and have a very full stomach.

Katie's parents came with us back to our stomping ground near Izmit. There they stayed for two days as we showed them what it was like around our area. Going up just after this post will be a vlog of our trip back into Istanbul for their flight home. So once it finally uploads that will be great for everyone to see.

I hope you all have enjoyed these posts of our trip through the country side of Turkey and Istanbul. Katie has been working shift for a few weeks, and with shift comes long periods of off time. We've planned our next trip, which will actually be this coming weekend. Here's the teaser, extra points to anyone who can guess where we are going.

Didn't someone propose on one of these?

Leave a comment if you enjoyed this post. Peace.