Istanbul, Turkey July 26th- 29th 2014

Friday July 25th was full of chaos around the Fowler house as we prepared to leave for our summer holiday. As we were laying in bed that night, all ready to go, we could not believe this vacation had arrived. We felt excited and blessed, like kids on Christmas morning that we have so many opportunities to see different parts of the world this year, and even more blessed that we have Maddie to take with us! 

Saturday morning we left our house at 7:45. We went on a metro, a train, 2 planes, another metro, then a tram and finally arrived at our hotel in Istanbul around 7pm. Maddie was very good all day except on the second flight were she had a small meltdown because she did not want to take a nap. It finally came down to me strapping her in the ergo baby and walking laps to the back of the plane to get her to settle down. 

This trip we decided to travel light, just one 22kg suitcase, a diaper bag, and a pull-string backpack for a 2 week vacation. I was very proud as we navigated ourselves to our hotel because I had done all the research on how to get there and we found it without any problems. We arrived at our hotel, The Grand Hotel Golsoy, and were very pleasantly suprised by the amenities and customer service of the staff. They welcomed us and told us all about the "must sees" in Istanbul. Customer service is not always the best Europe, so this was a nice change. It was also located right across the street from one of Istanbul's many beautiful mosques. Here is the view from our hotel window.

The hotel concierge also recommended a good local Turkish resturant. We got slightly lost getting there, but when we finally found it we saw that there were tons of other people arriving at the same time. I went up to the hostess and askes if there was a table for 2 and a baby. She asked if I had a reservation and when I said no, she said there were no tables without reservations. 

A manger of the resturant was watching and saying hi to Maddie and said that he would find us something- we were lucky that nobody can resist Maddie's charm. He found us a little table out on the sidewalk to share with a couple and their 4 year old son. The tables were preset with appetizers and 4 different drinks: water, tea, watered down sour yogurt, and a cool cider type drink which was delicious. We sat down and noticed that despite the starters being on the tables no one around us was eating.

Luckily, the mom of the family at our table spoke English and explained to us that this was a special traditional break-the-fast dinner for Ramadan. During Ramadan Muslims will fast from sunrise to sunset everyday for an entire month. As the sun sets the city's mosques play a call which signales that the fast is over and everyone can eat. This is when the feast began! The waiters brought plate after plate of traditional Turkish kabap, chicken, hummus and pita bread, meat pies, sausages, soup, and a cheese type dessert. We were so glad to sit next to someone who spoke English and could explain the food to us. It was an amazing cultural experience with even better food!!

Day 1: The Sights, Smells, Sounds and Tastes of Istanbul!

We started the day with our hotel breakfast buffet which consisted of a variety of meats, cheeses, pastries, and fruits. We were impressed by the breakfast spread and glad to again try local foods. Then off we went to explore this crazy city. First stop: the Blue Mosque. The Blue Mosque is still an active Islamic mosque so it closes for 90 minutes, 5 times per day for prayer time. You have to take off your shoes and women must cover their heads to enter. It got it's name from the thousands of blue Byzantine Iznik tiles that adorn the interior.

Right across the street from the Blue Mosque is Aya Sofya. It was built as a Christian church by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and finished  in AD 536. When it was finished  he cried out "Glory to God that I have been judged worthy of such a work. Oh Solomon, I have outdone you!" It showed the glory and wealth of the Byzantine Empire. When the Ottomans conquered the region it was converted to a mosque, then later into a museum in the early 20th century. 

About half way through our 2 hour audio tour Maddie decided she had had enough and threw a fit until she finally fell asleep in her carrier. 

Aya Sofya is famous for its Byzantine mosaics. It was very interesting that in all the other mosques there were no pictures of people or other figures, just geometric designs. Having these mosaics with human images, and in particular Christian scenes, in Aya Sofya gave it a different feel from the other mosques. 

Our next stop was the Basilica Cistern. It is a huge, palace-like underground hall, supported by 336 columns in 12 rows. It once stored the imperial water supply, but was eventually covered over and forgotten. It was recently rediscovered and now all tourists can marvel at this huge underground cavern.

It is dark and gloomy and still has about 3 feet of water in it with a lot of huge carp to keep the water clean. Although they claim it is no longer used as a source of water, after one sip of Istanbul's water we were convinced it still comes from this carp infested pond!! 

Around these attractions it seemed like everywhere you turn there is a salesman asking you to buy something or take a boat tour on the Bosphorus. They say "two hour tour, only euro 20." Then if you stick around long enough they say "...only euro 15." The Bosphorus is a waterway that connects the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. It is also considered the dividing line between Europe and Asia. We were not so convinced that a two hour boat tour crammed with tourists sounded like fun, but we did want to get out on the water for some nice views. So we decided to take the local ferry for only euro 2 to a town called Kadikoy on the Asian side of Istanbul. It ended up being a really fun adventure as the town was full of life, with narrow streets winding up a hill full of cute shops and resturants. 

Also, as expected, the views from the water were great. If you look really close you will se the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya in the background!

When we arrived we made a quick stop in the park of Kadikoy for Maddie to eat lunch. Then we headed up into the town to explore.

Kellen is a huge fan of dried fruit - this shop was right up his alley!

After tons of walking, we headed home and stopped on the way to grab a Turkish kebab dinner from a street vendor.

We got back to the hotel at around 8 pm and Maddie was exhausted. Living in a hotel room with a baby sometimes has it's challenges: we put her to bed, but had to hide in the bathroom so that she would stop trying to play with us actually go to sleep. Once she fell asleep we took turns going down to the sauna and steam bath at the hotel to finish the day with a bit of relaxation.

Day 2: Bazaars and Spices, well sort of!

Sometimes things just do not go as planned. After putting a lot of time to research Istanbul so our trip would run smoothly, this day could not have gone more wrong. Things started out great. We got up early as always with Maddie and headed to our great Turkish buffet breakfast.

We then wandered to the Sulemayne Mosque by our hotel. It was almost as impressive as the Blue Mosque, but when we arrived it was nearly empty except for a few people praying, so it had a more authentic feel. 

We then headed to the famous Spice Market and, sadly, as we approached it we learned that it was closed for three days for the conclusion of Ramadan. I was really excited to see the spice market and disappointed to miss out, but luckily a lot of the vendors had set up shop just outside so we were able to get a feel for what was inside.

There were so many amazing spices to smell and buy! They also sell a lot of Turkish delight, which is a chewy sweet treat with fruit flavors and pistachios.

Then we headed off to shop in the neighborhood of the Grand Bazaar. It was chaotic with all the vendors calling to try to get you into their store and haggling over prices. We picked up a few cute shirts for Kellen. About an hour later we realized that we had lost them - epic fail number two. We think they had fallen out of the stroller, so we spent a while retracing our steps trying to find our lost goods with no luck. After buying some more shirts to replace the ones we lost (luckily they are pretty dang cheap), we called it a day and went to the pool on the rooftop of our hotel.

Day 3: Travel day to Mykonos, Greece.

We often prefer to take public transportation instead of using taxis. It seemed like the best way to get from the hotel to the airport in Istanbul as well. It could be because a taxi costs about 130 Lira (Turkish money which equals about $70), because we heard traffic in Istanbul can be a beast, or because we like the adventure. Regardless, we looked up our route, which consisted of a 20 minute walk, 2 metros and a bus and set off with our bags and baby in tow. 

Overall we were not very impressed by the infrastructure in Turkey. The roads were rough and dirty and a lot of the buildings needed a little TLC. However, their metro/tram system is most likely the nicest we have ever seen. It is so clean, has a convenient ticketing system, powerful air conditioning system and some other cool features in the trains. Here is a picture of the new metro line they have built that goes under the Bosphorus.

After quite the journey, we made it to the airport after a nice Turkish couple helped us get on the right bus. We got checked in to Atlas Airlines and were headed off toward Greece.

Here are a few observations from our time in Turkey:

1. Turkish people, especially men, are obsessed with Maddie. I do not know if it is the light skin, blond hair and blue eyes, or her constant smile, but everyone touches her and takes her out of my arms to hold her and take pictures of her- even the airport security people!

2. There are mosques everywhere in Istanbul, including one right outside our hotel, and five times each day they sound the Call to Prayer over loud speakers on the minarets. The minarets are the tall spires surrounding the mosques and stand out against the landscape like the steeples of Christian churches in America. At first the very loud Call to Prayer is a bit harsh and shocking, but after a few days it becomes quite soothing.

3. Istanbul is stifling hot. The heat seems to radiate out of the uneven streets and concrete buildings. Oh, and it's humid with no breeze, adding to the pleasant heat! I realized I cannot complain though, because many Muslim women here are dressed in long sleeved black dresses dropping to the floor with black scarves covering their heads and even black gloves. Some of the less conservative Muslims wear very stylish long sleeve coats and colorful head scarves. I can not even imagine how hot they feel. 

4. Turkish people are extremely friendly and helpful. Even when they didn't really speak English very well, they seemed to go out of their way to help us out. From the family we sat next to during our first dinner to the couple who helped us get on the right bus to get for the airport and several others in between, Turkish women and men are some of the kindest most helpful people we have met in our travels.