I did find Istanbul overwhelming. You’d think I’d learn my lesson traveling to big cities–Bangkok, New York, London. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great cities, but I find them too big to manage, at least initially. The more I visit a bigger city, the more I like it. I guess it just takes getting used to for me.
Spice Bazaar
Even though Topkapi Palace was my favorite of Istanbul’s sites, the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are still impressive.
View of Blue Mosque from Hagia Sophia
The Hagia Sophia was a church and then a mosque and now a museum. It’s so interesting to see the design of a church with the high ceilings and the vaulted domes, with elements of a mosque, like the round discs with Arabic on them and the angels whose wings have been rubbed out.
Hagia Sophia
The Basilica Cistern was cool. If my memory is right, according to our Rick Steve’s Istanbul Guide Book (which I would highly recommend), the cistern was forgotten about for a long time until people started noticing water seeping into the ground. How do you forget about an awesome place like this?!
Basilica Cistern
My absolute favorite “must do” in Istanbul was the ferry cruise we took on our last day there. It was a relaxing change of pace compared to hectic Istanbul. Taking a leisurely ferry cruise to see the Bosphorus was an excellent way to see more sites without too much effort.
Bosphorus
Adventures in Serendipity 
hey there!
missing my favorite travel buddy– i need to get a copy of your pictures, they look so much better than mine! hope life is beautiful, let’s catch up soon!
lots of love,
sarah
Thanks, friend! I’m missing our awesome summer of travels, too. I will get you these pics. It only took me a few months to blog about our trip so I should get these to you by the time I see you again. 😉