Istanbul, Some More

I'm a hell of a blogger, almost a month has passed since our Turkish adventure and I didn't find the time to write about it.

I almost forgot how it was, so many things happened since: it was the Easter and we had a mini-holiday, we went to visit my mother in a village near Bucharest and our children's godparents, we spent all the time with the kids and there was no room for anything else.

Back to Istanbul, in the first evening we went out to see the neighborhood, and we had dinner on the quay. 

 Then, we ceased at sellers' persistence and we took some waffles filled with chocolate and fresh fruits. Happy, happy children!

In the next morning, we woke up early with a clear target: let's go downtown. We wanted to see the famous Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, the Topkapi Palace. We saw them: one for each day. With (our) children you can bet from the beginning that a schedule is impossible to respect. In Istanbul is even more chaotic, due to the crazy traffic and huge distances. 

We had a very trustworthy guide: Radu told us (permanently) where and how to go.

 

We parked the car behind the Yeni Cami (New Mosque), which is one of the best known sights from Istanbul. The construction of this mosque began in 1597 and it took more than half a century to be completed.

 

The interior of this mosque is a square with 41 meters on each side. The dome has a height of 36 meters and is 17.5 meters in diameter. The interior is beautiful decorated with blue, green and white Iznik tiles.

In the mosque's courtyard, a family of cats were so affectionate to each other, it took ages for us to leave. Mara would love to move there and sleep with them in a box.

 

The Spice Bazaar was just across the mosque, so we couldn't avoid entering. Is such an explosion of color, noise and flavors, that only to pass through makes you dizzy.

 

The traditional Turkish delight is everywhere, the sellers invite you to taste a little bite, then you leave with a bag full of sweets.

The ambulant coffee seller wanted to have a picture with us. I really enjoyed his coffee, it was just perfect.

 

We ate in the middle of the street, while Radu felt in some pigeon dropping, staining his shoes and his trousers, and smelling like a men toilet. Thank God it was dried by the time we went to the car, we just shook his pants and the dirt was gone.

I have to stop now, but I'll be back tonight with some more. The next days were sunny, so you can start to hate me from now :).