Trip to Istanbul Pt.2

In Turkey they have salami, cheese, olives, yogurts, tons of dishes of jams & jellies, and bread for breakfast. We couldn't get into the meats but we finally gave into the olives. The jams were fun like rose, peach, and there was always! nutella

We started out at the Topkapi Palace. It's grounds were really large and landscaped in blooming flowers. The interior walls were covered in hand painted tiles. The patterns were so pretty and alluring.

I loved the runners of river rock designs on the ground

Lots of inlaid wood, tortise shell, painted domes, stained glass, patterns made of interlocking stone. Everywhere you looked was another unique pattern or texture. They all butted up to one another and ran through each other. It was really inspiring to be entirely surrounded by all of it

 

Then we went to the Spice Bazaar and wandered around the shops. Joshua knew some words and phrases in Turkish so I really loved standing back and watching him haggle for prices. It was fun to run into the shops where they only spoke Turkish, since Joshua had been in Turkey for 3 weeks already he was pretty good at getting across what he wanted with hand gestures and calculators. He bargained down some turkish towels for me :)

We went to lunch and had a beef sauce with yogurt and Efes, which is one of the very few beers they have.

Joshua said he couldn't wait to get home and have a nice dark beer.

Then we started on a long walk across the bridge to a neighborhood, Taxim. The walk was filled with shops and more people than I'd seen in awhile. Sometimes all we could do was scoot our feet to move. Underneath the bridge even had shops and restaurants.Our walk ended in Taxim's little pavement park where we tried their liqueor Raki and enjoyed more rice pudding.

We picked a more calm area to walk back home down where we stopped at a cafe full of Turks and ordered a Turkish Pizza, Turkish coffee, and eventually tea. There people were all just sitting and chatting in the sunshine drinking tea and we loved soaking it all in.

We took another night walk because they made us feel like we were the only ones there and of course got more fresh squeezed juice :)

We struggled with tyring to decide what our favorite destination was. Maybe it's because it's where we finally met after being apart for 3 weeks, where our first overseas journey began, or because it really is a magical romantic place with some really cool old stuff we think Istanbul was our favorite.

Istanbul Pt. 1

Next up Venice, Italy!