Merhaba İstanbul

pac

4 days ago

1 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Day 11 – Sunday 18^th October

Unlike the last week in Romania, there’s no societal or community stories to tell here; at least not yet. Yes, there’s plenty of history, both generally about the Ottoman Empire and specifically about places such as the Hagia Sofia, but I think today I won’t dive into that.

Today was simply a day of wandering and exploring. We had arrived last night and had strolled down the road to Sultan Ahmet Park to do a quick orientation, and this morning after breakfast repeated that walk on our way to a formal Hagia Sofia tour (which is under serious repair scaffolding and so somewhat less photogenic). That was followed by a wander over to the Spice Markets,the Turhan Sultan Türbesi (purely by chance), then back to Sultanahmet Camii (the Blue Mosque), all interspersed with some coffees and shopping. Dinner at the Old Galata Ottoman Kitchen, a mere 160 metres from the hotel, mainly because the very handsome spruiker has charmed J 🙂.

A good day of exploration. The pictures can tell the story ...