#turkeyisfun

We’ve been home about a month, but Turkey is still warm in our b̶e̶l̶l̶i̶e̶s̶ hearts. We saw as many sites as our slow-marathoning legs would take us, and enjoyed the cityscape along the way: Galata tower from below and up top, an apartment by the water, the glorious Hagia Sophia that left us in awe, the opulent harem in Topkapi Palace, cat, and Jesus in gold. Finally, our most wonderful hosts - Ali, Phyllis and Ouslem (not pictured) -  were so generous and lovely, they eclipsed all of the above.

We spent a 3-day stopover exploring historic Istanbul, not Constantinople. It was the perfect east-meets-west in-betweener from sweet, hot Asia, to edge-of-winter Canada. Here we have a selfie with the Hagia Sofia; the local old man in the park; the skyline of Sultanahmet from the bridge; the glorious interior of one-or-another old mosque, and the spooky-cool interior of a Roman cistern. The Grand Bazaar was a surprisingly modern labyrinth; the grand pedestrian avenue in Taksim bustled despite a city-wide power outage! (Generators.) There were still a lot of tourists, and cute shops to cater for them.