Istanbul Featuring Matt [Part 2]

Istanbul was our last stop before we headed back to London.

Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of energy left and I was getting sick (again) but we managed to get out and see some pretty cool stuff and were also lucky enough to get a friendly visitor ;-)

Walking along the streets of Istanbul is pretty crazy, it's a huge croweded city and their are people everywhere, as well as so much to look at! My favourite part was the yummy smell of all the street food, there were corn stalls and pretzels everywhere!

We visited two bazaars (ie. marketplaces) while in Istanbul; the Eqyptian and the Grand Bazaar. The Egyptian bazaar is well known for selling spices and as you can see from the photo below there are no shortage of them!

These bazaars are just as crazy as the rest of istanbul, full of people buying sweets and spices and bartering over the prices (which is something that actually terrifies me). They also smell amazing because the spices are so fresh (and oh so illegal to bring back into Australia).

In the above picture, top left, is authentic Turkish Delight - it looks and tastes nothing like what we have back home! Often there are nuts running though it and they are never coated in chocolate! It is so strange that we have changed something so much. Top right is Turkish Baclava, which is just as amazing as the Greek version.

They also have many stores selling beautiful lights! I really love the look of these stores, they are so decorated and ornate - no chance of me getting one of them back home in one piece though!

 We wandered through both bazaars and it kept us occupied for a few hours, the Grand Bazaar is HUGE - there is something like 4000 stores in this place, mostly undercover but they also spill out into the street selling everything from spices and Baklava, to pottery, ceramic goods and lighting, carpets and rugs and of course the token fake sunglasses, hoodies, bags etc. - If you want a good quality 'authentic fake' as they call them, this is the place to look!

Later in our Istanbul trip my friend Matt (who also joined us in Morocco) came and stayed with us for a few days - it was so nice to see a friendly Aussie face!

Once he arrived we headed out to check out the Blue Mosuqe - probably one of the most famous mosques in the world. Below is Michael outside of it and on the right a picture of the courtyard type of area that is outside the main prayer entrance.

Unfortunately we were too late to actually go inside and visit but there are really nice gardens in this area and we wandered around and got ourselves a good view from the outside. 

The Hagia Sophia (bottom left) is another old mosque that is in this same area - it was also closed so we just pretty much wandered around the outside. You can see Matt not so much featuring in the top right picture haha!

The Blue Mosque is actually pretty stunning, it looks huge and overpowers everything else around it. 

The next day, we were actually up and about at a time when everything was open! We headed to the Agia Sophia first. As you can see Matt and Michael have very cool matching 3/4 pants happening. 

The Agia Sophia is no longer an active place of prayer but is now a museum - it is a really cool place because it used to be a Christian Church but was taken over by muslims and converted into a mosque, as a result it is decorated with artefacts from both religions and a real mixture of designs. 

As you can see behind Matt and I and below there is Arabic scripture but also (bottom picture, top right) Christian paintings - this church/mosque is also incredibly old, around 1,500 years!

We spent some time wandering around inside the Agia Sophia, it's really quite pretty, although they were doing a fair amount of construction work at the time.

Next stop: the Blue Mosque. 

As you can see there are really strict dress requirements for entry, fortunately Michael looked identical to the man in the picture haha! Men have to wear pants and women have to cover up everything but their face (pretty extreme and very hot!)

The inside of the Blue Mosque is absolutely stunning, it's a really amazing place. The middle section was filled with peoeple praying underneath hundreds of candles - quite a nice ambience!

Yep, I did not rock the headscarf look at all!

The roof of the Blue Mosque is the best part - its absoutely amazing and casts a blue glow throughout the entire building, giving a really calm and serene vibe. It was the first mosque I have ever visited and it was a really worthwhile experience. 

Well, that about sums up our not so active time in Istanbul. 

We have flow back to London and are settling into our new house - more updates soon to come!