Magical and enchanting

Hello, how nice of you to come and visit. I’m back! It has been an awesome week, and I’m afraid I’m going to share a lot of pictures with you. So grab a cup of tea, a couple of cookies and have a seat.

Although the temperature was quite perfect for a trip, there were a lot of clouds which made this view not as perfect as I would have hoped, but I think you can see enough to guess where I’ve been…..

Right, I was in Istanbul. And what a wonderful and amazing place this is.

Above you can see a view on the Golden Horn, with in the background Galata Bridge.

Of course we went to see all the highlights, which were very conveniently all on walking distance from our hotel.

Blue Mosque

Hagia Sophia

Topkapi Palace

All these buildings showed such wealth, such extravagance, that it sometimes (in my opinion) just was too much. But it is amazing to see how everything is put together, the architecture of these ancient buildings, the magnificence and grandeur.

Of course, going to a place like Istanbul you have to see all these things, but what I liked much more, was to see Istanbul how it nowadays is.

A little bit of both, ancient and contemporary are the bazaars with so many fragrances and colours, all the little streets, the noise, the liveliness.

It was breathtaking to walk here; the prices they ask were quite high, and you have to bargain. But I’m awful at haggling and higgling, so I didn’t actually buy anything.

The last day we were in town, we went for a long walk, across  the quarter of Sultanahmet, over the Galata Bridge, to Beyoğlu, right up to Taksim Square, and back through the small alleys. In retrospect, this was my favorite day.

It is hard to believe we’ve only seen a very small part of the European part of Istanbul. The Asian part, we haven’t been to at all. So, despite of this overload of pictures, it only represents a small part of this enchanting city.

Groetjes, Dorien