So this is a post with a lot of pictures therefore I chose to use clickable thubmnails instead of the full size images. Let’s get started!
Just click on the picture to see the full size image in another window!
Here was out company for a couple of the nights we were in Istanbul. My friend Fatih and his wife, Gizem were the ones nearest to Tati and me.
This was the (slightly foggy) view from our apartment. Fatih’s mother left town so we could occupy her place for the week we were in Istanbul. How’s that for Turkish hospitality?
SMART! At least I think they are… Smarts are everywhere in Europe and you can see why. Gasoline in Istanbul was eight dollars a gallon. No joke. Traffic jams get so bad that sometimes it takes a couple hours to go ten miles.
The biggest Burberry shop I have ever seen.
Inside of the Galatasaray Hamam. A Turkish bath is a must-do when visiting. Istanbul is expensive and a couple hour trip to the hamam only cost about $50 and included steaming, massage, exfoliation, and a foam scrub. It is unreal how clean you feel when you finish. Your skin really is squeaky clean.
I couldn’t take a picture inside the hamam because of the humidity but I was able to find a picture of the same hamam online. Btw… This hamam is 550 years old.
This was one of the nice little offshoots of Taksim. Taksim is one of the VERY nice and expensive shopping and dining districts in Istanbul.
The absolute best food you will ever eat. Oh how I miss Turkish food… 
So, you like designer stuff, eh? How about a new FANDI bag! Turkey is known for extremely high quality fakes (some say better than the originals) so I was a bit amused when I saw this Fendi knockoff hanging around this ladies shoulder.
The new shopping mall in Istanbul, Kanyon. Nice! And again, VERY expensive… ugh.
The Mac Geek in me won. One of the Apple stores in Istanbul.
This is a shot from our first morning there. A bit rainy, but charming nonetheless. Breakfast on the Bosphorus.
Here are a couple shots from the spice bazaar. It was also around five hundred years old and excited every the senses in so many ways. A very large building comprised of thousands of feet of exotic spices, teas and other wonderful treats. Such an amazing place!
Another Turkish breakfast on the Bosphorus.
The next seven shots are from our tour of the Bosphorus.
A nice shot of Fatih and Gizem.
Something nobody had seen before. The Bosphorus was full of jellyfish. Lots of them.
McTurco anybody? No, I didn’t eat one.
This is the Blue Mosque down in the major historical area in Istanbul. Sultan Ahmed.
Inside of the San Sophia museum. Originally a church built by Constantine in 463A.D. Taken by the Ottomans in 1453 and converted into a mosque. It’s impossible to imagine how they put this thing together so long ago. Standing in the bottom, the magnitude of this building is something that pictures can do no justice.
A shot of the Blue Mosque from a window on the second level of the Hagia Sophia (San Sophia) museum.
