Turkey: Week 1 

While Turkey had never been part of our original travel plans, my parents had planned a trip to the country for the fall and offered us a place to stay in the apartment they were renting. (For those of you who are unaware, my friend Sigi from school, and I, had planned the trip to Europe. Unfortunately, Ian had to stay in South Africa for school). Of course, Sigi and I were not going to turn down a free place to stay, and the more I read about Turkey the more I became interested to make a visit. And so, Sigi flew from Germany, where he was staying with his sister, and I flew all the way from Cape Town; we met my parents in Istanbul.  As it turns out, my mom is the ultimate travel planner and over the course of one week at her lead we covered just about every inch of Istanbul worth covering. The following pictures will attempt to show you some of the things we did including...

A visit to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (AKA the Blue Mosque):

Shoes are not allowed in a mosque nor can shoulders or knees show, so I got to wear this awesome getup.

A tour of the Bosphorus Strait and a hike to a castle overlooking the the mouth of the Bosphorus:

Sigi and I actually scaled that part of the castle YMCA rock wall style... which technically isn't allowed but it was totally worth it.

A visit to the famous Topkapi Palace:

It actually wasn't too bad having to hang with my parents..

The palace grounds are absolutely massive. Here is a small glimpse of one of the courtyards.

A visit to the Hagia Sophia, which was by far the most stunning building. It was built in the 6th century by two mathematicians (and obviously many, many other laborers). Insane!

The Hagia Sophia was converted from a church to a mosque and as a result some of the christian imagery was removed, covered, or defaced. Time added plenty of wear as well. Regardless, the amount of multicultural history in the building, and in Istanbul in generally, is incredible. 

And finally, a lot of walking around and exploring. We watched Turkish street performers, visited smaller churches, checked out the Grand Bazaar and Egyptian Market (spice market), and tried plenty of the local cuisine. Here's the last batch of photos for this post:

The outside of the Turkish Archaeological Museum, where we spent one of out last days with my parents.

A view of the Galata Tower from the balcony of my parents' apartment.

You could buy just about anything at the markets.

After roughly a week, Sigi and I were exhausted. Yet, we decided to stay for another five days at a hostel in Istanbul. We said our goodbyes to my parents who had to head back to the states and we were on our own. Our solo adventures will come in the next post hah.