The final port of call on my cruise is the amazing city of Istanbul.
Once the capital city of three empires (Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman), the city formerly known as Constantinople is bound to have some interesting history behind it. Unfortunately, a single day of sightseeing can barely scratch the surface, but I gave it my best shot.
The natural place to start is the world-famous Blue Mosque, which is just as beautiful as its reputation suggests...
From there, it's a short walk to the Haghia Sophia Museum...
And then onward to a spooky cistern, one of forty-three scattered around the city's underground...
And no trip to Istanbul would be complete without a trip through the Grand Bazaar, home to 4000 merchant stalls selling everything and anything you can imagine...
And, just like that, my vacation is over.
I think I need a vacation from my vacation now.
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That place is cool looking. Thanks for sharing.
Istanbul rocks, nothing more to add! Did you had a chance to test one of the turkish baths?
You should take two weeks and eat pudding and hot pockets and watch TV and recover.
Sounds like you need five or six finale ice cream cones.
Breath-taking photos of the mosque! What a great trip!! Safe travels home, man.
I’ll bet you do “need a vacation”! What wonderful stops along your cruise.
BTW, do I win a bad monkey t-shirt for my prognostication of last Sunday, “Can Istanbul be in your future?” Wild guess on my part./
What a *great* trip! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂 Just out of curiosity, not counting the cruise ship obviously, did you run into language barrier problems while visiting the ports? It definitely seems like two weeks was not enough time to thoroughly explore all the places you visited, that’s for sure!
Sounds like you’ve had a fantastic if tiring trip… I am heading to Istanbul next Tuesday 22/05 and have 6 days planned in the city before heading on a 21 day tour of Turkey… looking at your photos is making me so excited! 🙂
RMB
I think that vacation from vacation is called…work.
OK, I’m dying to know, how many women hit on you in Istanbul?
Your pictures are great! Thanks for the mini tour of Istanbul. I now want to go even more. The stalls at the Grand Bazaar look much more permanent than I expected.
Sweet dude. So how much did all of this cost you?
I have no idea why but I absolutely am drawn to your spooky cistern picture; it seems more calming than spooky. As usual, all of your photos are beautiful and I am suffering from a slight amount of jealousy ;).
Have safe travels back home and get some rest!
Fascinant ! 🙂
Awesome pictures. I kind of feel like my vacation just ended too. 🙁
I’ll leave the Turkey/Tryptophan pun for Karl.
Ajooja… Unfortunately, it’s actually a lot cooler-looking than I am capable of shooting with my camera. 🙁
Andre… No Turkish Bath for me. I did take a shower while the ship was docked in Turkey though!
Avitable… I was going to say that I only really need a week, but if I am eating Hot Pockets, then I guess it really would be two weeks!
Karl… Alas, no more ice cream for me. I did have three yesterday!
Shari… Don’t you think that Wenatchee needs something like that to make the skyline more interesting?
Bogup… I think a little Istanbul is in EVERYBODY’S future! Hah! 🙂
Jill… Most people in port speak better English than I do, so no problems at all.
borysSNORC… No doubt that you will have a most excellent time. I loved what little time I spent in Turkey, and dearly wish that I had more. 🙁
James… Hey! That’s not much of a vacation! But I’m afraid that’s all I got.
Nancy… None. That I know of. 🙂
Kim… There are parts of the bazaar that are pretty messed up, but it’s all fascinating, and I needed much more than the hour I had to explore it all.
Dan… Istanbul? The tour I took was like $50 or something like that.
Hilly… The cistern reminded me of that scene with the cistern in DUNE! I couldn’t help but say “Muad Dib” and let it echo in the chamber! 😀
Laurence… It’s even better in person!
Jeff… So now you need a vacation from my vacation too? 🙂
Wow, those are some great photo’s. Sounds like you are about ready for it to end though.
Instanbul looks awesome! I have seen some pics as my mom’s been there, she’s been everywhere it seems.
You may go through ice cream cone withdrawals on your way home. Be prepared.
Thank you for sharing your vacation with us! Hopefully the assimilation back into working is not that bad 😉
Whew! You certainly didn’t do a lot of kicking back and relaxing!
I had never heard of the Haghia Sophia until a few months ago but it is on all sort of modern marvels lists.
Gotta check it out someday.