Arriving to Istanbul
We have arrived to Istanbul!!...On the day called Big Friday (April). It was getting dark and it started to rain...It took us about one hour to arrive by bus to the harbor...then finally we got on the ferry passing through the Bosporus to reach our apartment in the old city...it was a nice start with a freshly squeezed orange juice which gave us the energy while travelling by the ferry! We felt great and amazed with the atmosphere of mystical city...If you lived in Rome, then the old city will give you the impression of being there...
The First late dinner
Yes, at 10 pm we had finally our first dinner...we wandered a bit to find the nice one...and it did not take us too long. We entered into a small restaurant where one lady was making a bread behind the window..It was family-owned restaurant where the owners served us the typical home made food...I would say, if you ever had an opportunity to eat typical Sicilian food, this is what you would taste. :)
Morning
The first morning we did not wake up with the muslim singing lessons (as we would expect)... This came later :) while we were having our morning coffee on the terrace. Family owned apartments had the one advantage: locals served us a typical breakfast, the local cheese and the Arabic bread..which was all cooked together...after the breakfast we ran into the city, and you can imagine what followed...yes yes touristic photos in the amazing places:)
Hagia Sophia
When you wander around the old city, after a while you realize that all beautiful historic places are not that far from each other...anyway, one minus score to the signs in the city!...Sometimes you do not know where is a main entrance, where is only a museum and where is a real HAGIA Sophia:) we actually stayed very close to little Hagia Sophia, we entered into the museum of Hagia Sophia and finally we managed to see the real Hagia Sophia:)
Grand Bazar
Yes, this is something we came to Istanbul for :) but very tricky..prices in Grand Bazar are three times higher than around the main historical places:) so Imagine...why would we pay for souvenirs 5 times more when people were not even willing to negotiate...this made us to move further to more local markets...we finished with lots of bags in our hands:). If you would like to take some local textile made of Turkish cotton, then we recommend it.
Kebab
I give 10 points out of 10 to local Kebab:) we tasted Kebab with a beef which was really tasty...I had a feeling that the meat was tasting somehow different than the one you get in our old Europe...please, let me know if you had the same experience...
