Enchanting Istanbul - Let the Traveling Begin

Living in Dubai we are close to many cities and countries that years ago, Jeff and I only dreamed of visiting. Now we can make those vacations a reality.
One city high on my "bucket list" as a must see was Istanbul, Tukey.

Our daughter Taeler and her husband Mike were coming to Dubai and when we talked about what we could do for her birthday we thought, "why not go to Turkey ?! It's close and fairly inexpensive.

 

Our idea became an reality  - we spent four packed days totally immersing ourselves in nearly 3000 years of history. Breath taking "old" architecture, mosques, bazaars, yummy turkish food and lots of walking sum up our Istanbul adventure.

We bought an Istanbul Lonely Planet travel book, made a 4 day plan and stuck to it. We saw all the recommended sites such as Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, the Basilica Cistern under the city (so cool), the Blue Mosque, Kariye Church, tour of the Golden Horn and whiring Dervishes just to name a few things.

We changed our hotel accommodations at the last minute and stayed in the Sultanahmet historic district - most of the sites we needed to see were within walking distance and it ended up being a good change. Our hotel accommodation was priceless, infact I would not even call our room a "hotel" which is clearly misleading but added to our overall Istanbul experience. Our room was old and tacky but clean.

The shower had no enclosure and ran all over the bathroom, making everything wet, but we were only in the room late at night and then we would be up early, on the go the next morning until we could not walk or stand any longer.

We experienced four days of yummy turkish food. When we asked for a recommendation, the locals would walk us to their favorite restaurants which ended up being delicious ! Taeler had to have baklava every day and even then she could not get enough of it.

There is still so much to see and do, but before we knew it it was time go home. Things I would recommend to anyone that takes a quick trip to Istanbul:

• Stay in the Historic District. The accommodations may not be the best, but you could not get any closer to what you came to see and the local eating establishments in the historic district are amazing.
• Plan your trip and stick to the plan. There is so much to see you really need to plan out each day. Buy an Istanbul travel book.
• Ask for directions from the locals. There are so many alleys and narrow streets it is easy to get lost. The Turkish people were so good to help us when needed. Even when we did not ask for help they would offer.
• Pay to see the Whirling Dervish ceremony - awesome !
• Go off the beaten path, exploring and walk it. We witnessed sights and things that many tourists were missing.
• Wear sensible shoes. They may not look great or match your outfit but after four days of walking up and down cobble stone roads, you wish you had your sensible walking shoes.
• Carry both euro and lira. Some places only take one or the other we found out.
• Enjoy the food and eat local.

We were exhausted by the time we got on Turkisk Air to fly back to Dubai but each one of us loved the enchanting city Istanbul and would definitely come back.

Jeff and I are already planning our next vacation - where will we go.....Nepal, Jordan, Israel, Singapore, the Maldives. It is so hard to decide. But one thing we know for sure, we will go back to Istanbul, that's for certain.
Istanbul should be a must see for everyone. The enchanting city of Istanbul - we loved it!