Day 1:
Istanbul is a huge city with over 15 million people. The city is divided into two parts by the Bosporus straight with two totally different personalities. The straight forms a natural border between Europe and Asia. We were told that the European side had more history and tourists whereas the Asian side was more local life. We choose to spend our first few days in Europe before heading to Asia so we could get a taste for both.
The travel days, along jet lag and all the excitement from our first night out left us exhausted so we slept in a little later then we would have liked but we still made it out before the crowds. Our first stop was the Blue Mosque. It’s called the Blue Mosque in reference to the 20,000 blue tiles on the inside walls. From the outside it was beautiful but we weren’t allowed in to explore as it was only allowing people in for prayers. On the way to our next stop, the Hagia Sophia we stopped for a Simit, a “Turkish bagel”. It’s “like a bagel” but not a bagel, at least to a NY’er. They leave out the step where you boil the bagel leaving it crunchy once its baked. They come covered in sesame and really are pretty tasty. We washed it down with a fresh squeezed pomegranate juice we felt we were over charged for. After our snack we continued on the historic walk around town and got to see several obelisks before we found the Grand Bizarre. Inside the bizarre you can find anything you never wanted. From there we headed through a park before reaching the water. We walked for hours crossing bridges and wandering through the city loving every minute. For dinner we tried one form of Turkish pizza called Pida. Its shaped like a sub and loaded with cheese, no sauce and whatever topping you want. Again the NY’er in me missed the sauce. There is another type of Turkish pizza we will try soon. So far we have been loving the Turkish and Ottoman food. Turkish McDonalds is next. After walking all day we retired to our favorite Hookah place for a bowl of fresh squeezed fruit punch and a Hookah and were surprised when our host brought us a special apple crumble type dessert with ice cream. Loved it and the hospitaly.

Day 2:
Again we woke up late. The plan was to head to the north end of town and walk back stopping first at a fort that ended up being closed for repair. So we walked along the river and came to the Saphire Tower known for having the best views of Istanbul. We spent about an hour enjoying the observation deck then caught a taxi to MiniTurk. We thought this was going to be real cheesy like an over sized mini golf course but it ended up being one of our favorite stops so far. It’s a complex about the size of a football field filled with miniature version of all of Turkeys biggest tourist attractions. From the Parliament building to the Blue Mosque to The Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia it had everything. We loved this place. It was like a model builders heaven. We can’t wait to share that video on Youtube. After that we got a cab to Taksim square just before sunset. It’s a public square with a Turkish monument brought over from Rome. Lots of people gathered around eating roasted chestnuts and corn. Seems you can get these snacks on every corner here for pennies. Next we headed to the famed Galata Tower, another Instagram hell filled with tourists clammering for the Instagram pose. We got our pic and headed home. Another great meal and then bed.

The mixture of locals, tourists, history, food and culture make the European side of Istanbul the perfect city for travelers to explore. We fell in love with Istanbul from the second we arrived and just can’t get enough. English is spoken by most everyone here and the cost of things has been much lower then we expected. I’ll do a blog about the cost of things after we experience the other side of town wich we heard is even cheaper. Tomorrow we are going to pack up and move to the Asian side of the city for a couple of days before renting a car and heading out to explore the rest of the country.