Istanbul

tl;dr; OMG THERE'S A SLIDESHOW!!!

As most of you already know, B and I went to Istanbul a few weeks back. It was a lot of fun. Istanbul is a beautiful place, and it has a lot of fun history to explore.

We posted a few pictures, but took many many more. At the request of one of my favorite aunts, I've tried filter out the useless ones and post the rest.

For those unfamiliar with the area, I'll highlight a few so you have some idea of what you're looking at.

The Grand Bazaar is in Istanbul. Pretty much think 'worlds first mall', and part of the fun is they haven't yet discovered those maps with "You are here" on them. It's gigantic, it's completely unorganized, and tons of fun. Becca was telling me on the plane over that people are concerned about the Grand Bazaar's stability in an earthquake because the shop owners keep removing parts of the walls to make more space in their shops. I believe it. Every available inch of store front space is crowded.  The Grand Bazaar was one of the many places we went where I was glad we were visiting during an off season for tourists.

The Hagia Sophia is in Istanbul. One of the many things I learned about on the trip. It was originally built as a Christian church, then later converted to a mosque, and is now a museum. There is a space marked off towards the front that you can't walk on because it's where most of the Byzantine Emperors were crowned.

Sultan Ahmed Mosque or the Blue Mosque is another one of those Things I Learned About™. But mostly all I learned is that it is incredibly huge and incredibly beautiful. It sits across a long garden area from the Hagia Sophia.

There are islands of the coast that you can take a ferry to. I'm told that they're supposed to be a lot of fun, and I bet in the summer they are, but in February the main inhabitants seem to be stray dogs and cats. I think for the main point of us going there though was the boat ride, in which we were not disappointed. Also, since the city of Istanbul is on both sides of the Bosphorous, we got off the ferry on the other side and now we can say we've been to the continent of Asia. #winning

Topkapı Palace is probably the coolest palace I've toured so far, and I've been to my fair share of palaces. Maybe it's because this is the one I've been to most recently, maybe it's because it's a different style than almost all the others and that makes it stands out. I'm not really sure, but it was a lot of fun to explore, and I'm so incredibly glad that we got to put around inside it for a few hours.

That about about does it for the highlights. Here's a slideshow. I tried to at least put the location in the description, so if you're lost and just looking at buildings that could save you.