So, Istanbul. Or Constantinople. Byzantium if you're going way back.

We left for our trip early Tuesday morning, and after 3 and half hours in traffic, a few hours of delay in the airport because of fog:
and a 3 hour plane ride, we arrived in what would have been sunny Istanbul had we arrived at our original estimated time of 3:30 p.m. For us, however, it was dark out and we didn't get to see much on our shuttle from the airport to the hotel.

Our hotel, by the way, was a major disappointment. Our room overlooked a noisy cafe, and the alleged rooftop terrace? Not actually on the roof of our building. We had to walk to a different hotel owned by the same people. And then the terrace there left a little to be desired. Not like the very pretty pictures on their website. Our room ws clean though, and breakfast was good, and they had a computer where we could check e-mail, so it wasn't completely awful.

The first morning we were there, we set out and saw the sights. We hit the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia first, because they were just a few minutes from our hotel. Pretty cool. Big mosques. A nice change from all the big cathedrals all over the rest of Europe. I think our favorite part of the Blue Mosque was having to remove our shoes and walking inside the quiet, cool building with the plush carpet squishing beneath our toes. I could really pray there. You know, if I were muslim.




Next we hit the Grand Bazaar, built in the 15th century and a definite tourist trap. It was still fun though. We browsed, Ben bargained with shopkeepers, we wandered, we rested at a cafe, we bought a few more things. It was great. And really big. If you ever go, take a map or leave a trail of breadcrumbs or something. Seriously.




Another great place for buying stuff was the Egyptian Bazaar, or Spice Bazaar as everyone calls it since it's not so much Egyptian in any way. I thought the Spice Bazaar was way better than the Grand Bazaar because it was full of FOOD! There were mounds of colorful spices, teas, nuts, dried fruits, candy... it was fantastic.



We also spent time hanging out on the Galata Bridge, which connects the European part of the city to the Asian part AND has a bunch of restaurants tucked underneath it. It's a prime boat watching location and it's much quieter than a lot of other parts of the city. We took a few breaks there to just sit and have a beer and watch people and boats and stuff. Very nice.




One evening we took a ferry ride to Kadakoy, which was about 20 minutes away by boat. We went so we could enjoy the view of Istanbul at night from the water, and we weren't disappointed. But the most eventful part of the mini-journey was when we were wandering around Kadakoy before heading back. We had found an area with benches that was right on the water and we were just sitting and watching, when all of the sudden Ben jumped and looked behind us. There was a stray dog, licking Ben's arm. We weren't too surprised because there were stray dogs everywhere, probably about 10-20 just lounging around this particular area. But this one came up and licked Ben. We said hello and informed him we were not going to feed him. He came and hopped up on the bench with me and licked my face. We named him Mustafa. We tried not to encourage him because, as much as we love dogs, this one wasn't coming home with us. Mustafa, however, had other plans. We got up from our bench and started walking away and Mustafa ran up and trotted along next to us. Cute, huh? And then we came to other people walking toward us and the benches. Mustafa valiantly protected us by running up to each person and barking, guarding us from every passerby. We were slightly amused, although the people getting "attacked" by a stray dog didn't really see the humor in it. Luckily, after a while Mustafa figured that we really meant it when we said we weren't going to feed him or take him home and he went back to hang out with the other dogs.


The rest of our time in Istanbul we wandered, and ate. And ate, and wandered. The food was great. The wandering was tiring.

Next up, Ireland. We leave tomorrow and stay our first night in Dublin. That's all we have planned, so wish us luck!