Summarizing Istanbul

Before we head off to other destinations in Turkey, I thought I'd create an entry that attempts to capture and summarize a bit of our last two days sightseeing in Istanbul.

Yesterday began with a wander over to Taksim Square, just to see it with our own eyes (in the daylight). It was Friday the 13th in Taksim Square... what could go wrong?? Featured below is my "standing man of Taksim Square"...

We then packed up and left our fancy Nisantasi apartment, exchanging it for a smelly, dank, basement room in an Ottoman-style hotel in the Sultanahmet area. This hotel (Mataraci Konak) is exactly the reason I don't "put all of my eggs in one basket" when booking hotel rooms and locations; that is, I prefer to book a few nights here and there rather than a week (or more) in one place.... because the room could end up being like this! I did a lot of research on trip advisor before booking this hotel, but then got duped when we arrived. The hotel guy said there was 'something wrong' with our double room upstairs and so we were given this basement one. Yeah, right. Featured below is my "sitting man of smelly, dank hotel room" :-)

Anyway, outside of our hotel room, we are finding plenty of fine treasures: Topkapi Palace, Aya Sofya, Blue Mosque, Grand Bizarre, terrace restaurants with great views, roasted corn, and Efes beer!

Tomorrow is a travel day... I'm loooking forward to experiencing life outside of Istanbul and inside a cave hotel in Goreme, Capadoccia!

Talk to you in a couple of days...