Istanbul: The Most Stunning Skyline

The mosques around Istanbul make the skyline incredible - beautiful domes everywhere you look.  Combined with warm weather, great food, and friendly people - such a great trip.  Here are a few of my favorite snaps from this trip!

Galata Tower:

Hauntingly beautiful Basilica Cistern:

Stunning tile in Topkapi Palace:

...and landscape was stunning too:

Blue mosque from the Hagia Sophia:

More amazing domes...

Turkish coffee...in their beautiful ceramic mini-cups:

If You Go: Istanbul

Istanbul was a really incredible place.  We loved so much about it - the food, the sights, the weather, and the pace.  With five days, we weren't as rushed as usual and really got to enjoy many parts of the city.  We have included our recommendation on accomodation, restaurants, and sites.  A few other #protips for Istanbul:

• Istanbulkart: You buy these at newspaper stands near the tram and ferry stops.   Fill it up with 10 dollars and you can use it for all of the public transportation.  Way easy.
• Museumkart: You should also buy a Museumkart - which provides access to all of the major museums.  Between Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace, it pays for itself quickly
• Dress: The dress is more western than I expected in Istanbul.  Decide which days you want to go to mosques and only dress "appropraitely" those days if you're there in the summer.  Otherwise, you're clear to wear dresses, sleeveless tops, etc. any time. 
• Haggling: The Grand Bazaar is way over priced.  Avoid it if you can and identify better reviewed stores - we loved Jennifer's Hamam for cotton, Myth Arts for Ceramics, and Ant Gallery for scarves.  They were reputable and there was little haggling involved as the prices were fair to start. 

Hotel 

Hotel Sultania: This was a fantastic hotel right in the middle of the central district.  A quick hop to just about everything in the city.  Highly recommend (~$110/night)

Restaurants 

• Giritli Restaurant: This was one the best meals I have had in my life. A Cretian restaurant that's seafood-based, it's a pre-fixe menus that includes about ~20 cold mezes, several hot mezes, an incredible grilled fish main, and dessert...plus unlimited wine.  The food was diverse and delicious.  Super highly recommend.  It was expensive by Istanbul standards, but was pretty cheap in grand scheme (50 Euro/person)
• Mikla: Wow.  This is where we went for our anniversary dinner - it is one of the fanciest restaurants in Istanbul with an incredible view over the city.  The restaurant has  3 or 7 course option with wine pairings.  They were truly fabulous and it was one of the most memorable meals of my life.  WOW!  Very expensive, but worth it.  Many publications note that this likely to be Istanbul's first Michelin starred restaurant and it definitely deserves it! 
• Old Ottoman Cafe: This is a Trip Advisor Top 15 resturants in the city.  An interesting menu since it serves a lot of traditional ottoman dishes in addition to your standard Turkish fare.  They served P a crazy casserole that was served in a clay pot on fire.  Delicious and interesting. This is very reasonably priced 
• Moda Ice Cream: This was Prasad's favorite ice cream.  It's a Turkish ice cream chain that is unique in that the ice cream is made with goat's milk and ground orchid root.  I was not a fan, but P loved it!

Things to Do 
There were so many amazing things in Istanbul, here were some of our favorites:

• Istanbul on Food: We started our trip with a full day "two continents" tour and it was our favorite day of the trip.  We had 11 stops and tried 48 different foods - from sheep intestines to traditional goat's cheese to fried mussels.  It was a great introduction to the city and cuisine. 
• Topkapi Palace: This was a great morning - the grounds are beautiful, it offers stunning vistas of the city, and was amazing to see how the various Ottoman Sultan's lived.  Definitely get the tickets to the Harem apartments to see the tilework.  Also, highly recommend an audio tour. 
• Basilica Cistern: A hauntingly beautiful remnant of the Roman water system in Istanbul.  It's dark and architecture is really incredible.  Spend an hour here. 
• Hagia Sophia: A beautiful cathedral turned mosque turned museum.  Amazing to see so much history in one place.  
• Arasta Bazzar: This is a smaller, but much higher quality bazaar than the Grand Bazzar.  It's much less pressure - no one is hawking their goods and there is minimal haggling. 
• Archaeology Museum: This was a really neat museum with many treasures from the times of Mesopotamia as well as a huge selection of mummies.  Very cool. 

Cotton Anniversary

This is my first post in a long time.... life has been...full and amazing!  I promise to get back to regularly scheduled blogging in July.    

We celebrated our "Cotton Anniversary" (aka second anniversary) in the land of Turkish Cotton.  We had a truly incredible trip to Istanbul and the turquoise coast.  It was full of incredible sights, delicious food, and time to relax.  It was also full of lots of cotton - purchased at the most famous cotton store in Istanbul - Jennifer's Hamam.  Check out a picture of some of the amazing cotton wears at Jennifer's and my favorite travel partner.  It was a great anniversary - to reflect on love, a full life, and living out our bucket list.

More on our trip to Turkey very soon: