A totally unpredicted visit to Istanbul

Hello steemians,

How I got to visit this awesome city, it is kind of funny story. I was coming home from Dubai and we missed our flight connection, later we found out that actually the flight was overbooked and that's why the airplane left without us, so we received free tickets the next day and accommodation for one night and food. We were 15 people in this situation.

I was flying alone so I met three awesome girls who were also flying alone and we became friends and decided to visit the city together, despite we were so tired.

The hotel was kind of far from the city center but we shared a taxi ride and went discovering the city by ourselves. The rest of the people preferred staying at the hotel because of the attacks happening at the subway in that time.

We did not have a lot of time but we checked some major attraction. We crossed on the ferry the Bosphorus Strait (which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara) and from there we went to Hagia Sophia.

Waiting for the ferry

View from the ferry

We drank some traditional tea, the view was astounding, the pub was on hill, near some nice park.

In the past, Hagia Sophia was first a orthodox church, after that became a mosque, and in the present is a museum. Now is one of the most astounding structures of Byzantine architecture.

Unfortunately we did not make it in time to visit it, but we visit the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, also known as Blue Mosque.
It was built just in seven year, between 1609-1616 and today continues to function as a mosque. It’s really close to Hagia Sophia. It was my first time when I visited a mosque, because in Dubai I did not have the chance, but I had to borrow a scarf to cover, in order to respect the religion. I was really impressed by this wonderful mosque.

There I met a Spanish photographer who was traveling around Europe, we became Facebook friends and she gave the picture she took me inside

Picture made by my new friend

After that we could not left back to the hotel without visiting one of the largest covered market, the Grand bazaar. It may be considered as one of the first shopping malls.

There were a lot of people encouraging us to buy, they knew somehow we were from Romania, I don t know how and spoken to us in Romanian language or asked us about some wannabe celebrities from here. It was really funny. We did not buy anything because our luggage was full.

Of course we ate some baklava and a tasty shawarma.

The streets were kinda of trashy, but I saw this colorful stairs which I liked very much.

It was sunset time and went back to the port to catch the last ferry crossing once again Bosphorus Strait.

I really enjoyed the city, and I often dream about returning back. Did you enjoy Istanbul? What’s your favorite attraction from there?

Istanbul is inspiring because it has its own code of architecture, literature, poetry, music.
Christian Louboutin

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Thank you.
Have a nice time.
xo A

!steemitworldmap 44.433780 lat 26.125488 long A totally unpredicted visit to Istanbul d3scr