Istanbul, Turkey

This past weekend I went to Istanbul. It is a really neat city with lots of history and I think clearly rivals New York as a "busy" and crowded city. It was founded in about 700BC and was later known as Constantinople. Now it's one of the world's biggest cities. It also sits on 2 continents - Europe and Asia (split by the Bosphorous Strait that connects the Black Sea to the north with the Marmara Sea to the south). I also learned that it has over 4,000 mosques! And needless to say, arriving midday on a Friday, I heard my share of calls to prayer over the loudspeakers!

The Blue Mosque was built in about 1600.

Outside courtyard of the Blue Mosque.

This is the Hagia Sofia mosque and was built in 530.

Inside the Hagia Sofia.

Inside the Blue Mosque.

This was inside a cistern, which was built in 532 by the Romans to store the city's water. It was also featured in the James Bond movie "From Russia with Love" and Indiana Jones "The Last Crusade".

This is the main train station, which was the last stop of the Orient Express.
Camondo Stairs. I had never heard of these before, but I guess they are famous, so I had to take a picture.

I went to a traditional Turkish show one night that had belly dancers and other performances.

Attack of the pigeons.

Amongst the 4,000 mosques, I finally found a Catholic Church to go to Easter mass at.

Courtyard in front of the church.Easter decorations inside the church.

All throughout the town are outside markets and this stand sold freshly squeezed juices with orange, grapefruit, kiwi, and pomegranate.

One of the countless kebap restaurants.

The most common things for sale in Turkey are rugs and ceramics.

No caption necessary here.
Fresh fish market.

Safer not to ask what this is.

Fresh olives for sale at the spice market. Spices NutsIf you visit Istanbul, I hope you can deal with crowds!

Jellyfish were everywhere in the Bosphorous Strait.

This is a view from Europe across the Bosphorous to Asia.

I took a cruise up the Bosphorous to the edge of the Black Sea. This is a view from the Asian side back toward Istanbul.This is the place we docked and where the picture above was taken from. I hiked up to the ruins of the castle/fortress.

Typical houses seen along the cruise route.

I had great weather the whole time. It was sunny and warm, and there were spring flowers everywhere.

This is a view from a hill on the Asian side to the Marmara Sea just to the south of the city. There were hundreds of boats (mostly oil tankers) anchored here.