I didn’t know where I was going to go after Greece, but the guy in my room was from Turkey and some of the cheapest flights I found were actually to Istanbul or through Istanbul.  I had met a friend in Barcelona from Istanbul, so I reached out to see if she would want to hang out and to my surprise, she invited me to stay with her and her husband.  I arrived in Istanbul in the evening and they picked me up at the bus stop near their home!

We didn’t really do much the first night, but it was nice to just catch up and chat.  The next morning we spent most of the morning taking apart cameras to see which chips ran it.  It was fun to nerd out.

Renatta then gave me a haircut as she is a professional and competition hair stylist and my hair was getting a bit long.  After that, we left the house and went on an exploration adventureas well as a scoping mission to see some possibilities for Renatta’s new hair studio.  We took a ferry to the other side of the city and enjoyed the stroll along the water.

There were a lot of cool things to see in our wanderings.  These pay phones were my favorite.

We stopped for some food and ended up at an arcade at one point, where we played pinball and did bumpecars.

Generally, we just acted like kids and had a great time.

We eventually made it to a shopping street which we walked down and then split off to a cooly alleyway tht had a bunch of restaurants and live music.  We stopped in there for some food and pet all the kitties.  That was one thing about Istanbul is that there were wild cats EVERYWHERE.  They were all very friendly and the locals generally take to feeding them and taking care of them.  Apparently in the winter, some business owners will let dogs in their shops and put out carpets for the dogs and cats so they can have a warm place to sleep in the winter.  It was really heartwarming.

The city was really alive and I had a great time checking out the sites and just generally exploring what the vibe of the city was.  We covered a lot of ground in one day and got a great overview of the vibe.

The next day was pretty rainy so we ended up just chilling at home.  Iker worked from home and Rennatta was looking for a place to open a hairdressing school so they were both around to hang out with.  We watched a movie and then Iker and I went to the gym in the afternoon.

The gym was in a mall with some pretty cool egg like architecture.

Another amazing thing that happened on that day was that I got a sim card!!! Iker goes to the states on occasion and had a few T-Mobile sim cards on hand that he activities when he goes to the states.  He generously let me have one and I got my number ported to it.  I was back to having data!!!

The next day I set off on my own for some hardcore tourism.  I had asked the major sites I should see in Istanbul and wanted to make sure to catch as many of them as possible.

My first stop was the famous Hagia Sophia which was built as a Greek Orthodox church, then later became a mosque and is now a musueum.  It was built in AD350 which blows my mind since it was HUGE.  It was the largest building in the world at the time of it’s construction and has lasted almost 2000 years.

Even the museum had cats.

I then went across the square to the blue mosque, where there was an information session about the mosque itself as well as more about the muslim faith.  I was curious and learned quite a bit.  I was there right around prayer time and so none Muslim visitors are not permitted and I didn’t want to wait around to go inside.  I had been in a few mosques already and decided to continue my exploration.

My next stop was the Basillica Cistern which is open to the public and is basically a giant water tank but with ornate columns supporting it.  It has been used in several movies and was pretty neat to explore.

I then wandered to a bridge with tons of fisherman on it.  Underneath the bridge were a bunch of fish restaurants, so i decided I should probably get a sandwich.  They were pretty cheap ($2USD) and looked like they were pretty popular with the locals.

I made my way to the next tourist attraction which was a tall tower which you could go up. It was built in 1348 and gave some pretty nice views of the city.

It was crazy to see all of the Minerettes on the horizon.

The fish sandwich was not enough for food so I stopped at a local shwarma place and grabbed a fresh squeezed juice and a shwarma.

The next stop on ym tourist adventure was the Grand Bazaar.  It was a giant indoor marketplace with tons and tons of different stalls selling everything under the sun.

I typically don’t buy much in markets, but it is really interesting to see what types of things are sold and how things are set up.  I often talk to a vendors and just get a feel for the market.

After a long day of exploration I headed back to the apartment for an evening of chilling.

The next day was another tourist day, but this time we all decided to take a boat tour along the river. The port which the boat left from had a nice mosque on the rivers edge and so I decided to check it out.  I treat most religious buildings very similarly in that I usually sit down and take some time to just reflect on what I have been doing and how I am feeling and where I am etc.  Take a few minutes to really internalize the last little while and to trully appreciate where I was and what I was doing!

The above is the inside and the below is the outside.

We jumped on the boat and were off.  The bridge you see below is actually a bridge across continents.  Istanbul sits on the banks of what is considered Asia on one side and Europe on the other.  Therefore these bridge takes you across continents which is pretty cool.  There is actually a marathon every year that runs across the bridge and therefore an intercontinental marathon, which is kind of neat.

It was interesting to see the things that were built up on the side of the water.  Beautiful houses, castles and various shops and marinas.

The castles below used to be attached to another one on the other side of the channell by a large chain.  When boats that were not wanted to pass, the chain was raised and the boat would strike it and not be able to get by.  I thought this was kind of cool and a relatively simple way to stop unwanted ships from passing.

After the boat cruise, it was time for find some food.  My friend Andrei who I had met up several times, mentioned that he had a friend in Istanbul that was down to meet up and so I invited him out to have a beer with us!

We found a brewery not far from their place and so I got to try a flight of Turkish craft beer!

There was nowhere we could go in Istanbul where there were no cats.  Cats EVERYWHERE.

I decided that this would be my last night in Istanbul as I had gotten the full experiance of the city and my hosts were very generous to provide lodging and companionship and I didn’t want to outstay my welcome.  The flight wasn’t until the evening so I still had most of the day to explore.  I decided to go for an adventure run as the weather had improved a little bit (still rainy though)

I ran along the channel for a bit and it was indeed an adventure run!

When I returned, Iker wanted to take me to a famous turkish food place before I left and so we headed off to Bayramoglu Doner!

The place was pretty old school but it was BUZZING.  There were waitstaff everywhere and service was practically instant.  They really had a system down and were they ever efficient.  The food itself was pretty straightforward, with just a plate of doner meet and whatever side you wanted, but gosh was it good!

Not sure why i didn’t take a picture of the food itself, but it might have been that I was overwhelmed by the speed and deliciousness of the dish.  Oh well, you can take my word for it or visit yourself.  After returning from the doner place, I packed up my stuff and headed towards the bus station to catch the bus to the airport.  I gave myself plenty of time to catch the bus so I could exlore the shopping street a bit, but ended up getting really confused as to where the bus picked up, as I was getting different reports from different people and the dot on the map did not match up to where the bus actually picked up.  When I finally found where the bus picked up there was a huge lineup and I was concerned that A) The bus was already late and B) there were too many people and I wouldn’t get a spot.  Everything ended up being ok and I got a spot on the bus.  I didn’t get to go to the lounge due to the lateness of the bus, but I am glad I didn’t because there was extra security required at the gate, which I had never seen before.  Maybe it was because I was headed to Israel!  This was a fairly last minute decision but I had then planned out my route for the next couple weeks as I now knew I had to get to Morocco in a few weeks and had to start making my way in that direction.

For a pretty quick flight, Turkish airlines provides a pretty nice spread!

Anyways, next stop Tel Aviv!