The next day we took a packaged tour of Istanbul. We had a nice buffet breakfast at our hotel, Grand Oztanik, before we were picked by our tour guide. The tour group consisted mainly of people from India and Pakistan and our Turkish guide used 'chalo chalo' to kepp us all moving and on schedule :-)
We started the tour at Hippodrome in the old city. The Hippodrome used to be an oval horse racing track in the ancient Roman times, similar to the one in the movie Ben Hur. Today the only thing which remains is the oval 'track' with couple of Egyptian obelisks in the middle.
Then we did a short walk to the Blue Mosque or Sultan Ahmet Mosque as it is known by the Turkish people. The mosque is really imposing building with five main domes and six minarets and was constructed between 1609-1617. Apparently construction of the building was held up because the Sultan had to build a seventh minaret to the mosque in Mecca so that it has more minarets than the Blue Mosque.
After the Blue Mosque, we took a short walk to the Hagia Sophia, which used to be a Greek Orthodox church before it was converted to a mosque by the addition of minarets. After the formation of the Turkish Republic in 1924, it was converted to a museum and the Christian icons and paintings, that were covered up when it was a mosque, were restored. It is quite an imposing building and really interesting architecture.
After the Hagia Sophia we took a short walk to a Turkish carpet exhibition center where they showed us how carpets are made and also introduced us to 'Apple Tea'. The carpets were really pretty and intricate but quite expensive and beyond our budget. We then took a short walk to the Grand Covered Bazar, which is a large indoor marketplace with lots of shops selling all sorts of stuff from tourist trinkets to spices. We ended up buying really expensive home made apple and pomegranate teas and a traditional Turkish lamp.
After the Grand Bazar, we had lunch at a roof top restaurant and in the afternoon went to the Spice Market, which as the name suggests is an open air marketplace that sells spice from all over the world. It reminded us of Chandini Chowk in Old Delhi as it had the same narrow lanes and crowded gullies.
The Spice Market was followed by the highlight of our Istanbul trip, a cruise on the Bosporus Strait.The Bosporus is a narrow body of water that connects the Black Sea with the Mediterranean Sea and marks the boundary between Europe and Asia. Istanbul straddles across both sides of the strait with part of it in Europe and part of it in Asia. The tour guide pointed out the various palaces and castles that sit on either side of the strait. It was a wonderful experience and something that should be on everyone's bucket list.
After the cruise, we were dropped back at our hotel and we had an early dinner at a wonderful falafel restaurant called Falafel House in Taksim Square. Thus ended the Istanbul part of our trip. In the next post I will cover the trip to Cappadocia region of Turkey and the hot air balloon ride.
