Nabeel - Istanbul

Taken from personal blog (https://nabeelinturkorea.blogspot.com)
Blue Mosque to Grand Bazaar to Galata Bridge

Ok, so I will be a little honest I am a little behind in blog posts so I will try to get two posted by this weekend. I traveled to Kapadokya this past weekend as it was a long holiday weekend dedicated to the youth of Turkey so I wasn't able to post about my visit to the SultanAhmet area yet. I will attempt to make this post short and sweet since this was only a day trip

I started my trip on the last day of my first weekend in Istanbul, Sunday May 11th. I was posed with the challenge of travelling from the Özyeğin University campus to SultanAhmet alone since Jennifer and Boming, the other two interns from UM had stayed in a nearby hostel the previous night. After taking a blue mini-bus and the newly added Marmaray Metro line that goes under the Bosphorus, I successfully completed the voyage and met up with them at the Blue Mosque.

When I first arrived there was a very light sprinkle, nonetheless everything was still pretty damp. The mosque looks majestic even in the gloomy weather

Disregard the silly face I made in this picture. Here is a pic of me standing in front of the mosque in case you don't believe I was actually there...

Up close and personal, the place was infested with tourists

Beautiful designs from the inside of the prayer hall. I will be honest, like many other mosques the musallah (prayer hall) had the pungent odor of feet. I took some time to pray as well to get in on the full experience.

This the Hagia Sophia from the outside. We did not go inside. I am saving the trip for another day and hopefully I will be able to share the experience with you soon.

Just a curious kitty in the street on our way to the Grand Bazaar

The entrance to the Kapalıçarşı AKA the Grand Bazaar. It was only about a 10-15 minute walk from the Blue Mosque

This is what it looks like when you first walk in. The sounds of bartering echo through the intricately decorated halls. A large part of the bazaar is jewelry, jewelry that a college student like myself does not need and cannot afford.

We walked into this ceramics store that displayed colorful, meticulously painted dishware. I would think these are just to be bought for decorative purposes.

For some reason all of the suit shops had window displays of mannequin children with facial hair that seemed to be Sharpie'd on. This was just a tad creepy.

My curiosity for exploring random back alleys led me to this shabby one that seemed almost like a ghost town. I think it was just shut down because it was time for prayer. We found it on our way to the Egyptian Spice Bazaar.

This is what it looks like when you first walk into the Egyptian Bazaar. If only you could somehow attach the smell to the picture.

A colorful selection of teas and spices

When we exited from the bazaar we ran into what seemed to be an international festival celebrating the cultures of many different countries. Kazakhstan happened to be taking pictures with people and they even let me wear their hat.

We were getting tired and hungry so we began to head back towards Taksim. In order to do that we had to cross the Galata Bridge. In fact we also had our dinner on the lower level of the bridge.

These are the fishermen of Istanbul hard at work catching fish. They catch the fish and sell them to local restaurants, making the fresh fish cheaper than many other places. 

We decided to have dinner in one of the many seafood restaurants on the lower level of the bridge. The owner gave us a pretty good discount for being students so we were immediately lured in. I ordered the fried anchovies. 

I was half way into my meal when I remembered I should take a picture to show all of you. I apologize for showing you a half-eaten meal.

The view of the golden horn from the restaurant we ate at. It was a very gloomy day.

You can see the Blue Mosque from basically anywhere.

After our day I met up with some exchange students from the university that we stay at to spend some time in Taksim. I was able to finally explore some of the more touristic areas of Istanbul. It is safe to say that you can basically find everything in Istanbul.

This marks the end of this post. I hope you enjoyed it. My next post will include the experiences I had in Kapadokya which may take a while to document so bear with me. Until next time.