Istanbul was Constantinople

Another long weekend from work, so we flew to Istanbul. I’d been there before, but the trip had been a bit of a disaster, given that my train to Istanbul broke down for 24 hours in the middle of Bulgaria.

This trip, though? It was great.

We walked around, had a great rooftop dinner, and then started sightseeing.

First up: the famous Blue Mosque.

We were lucky that our hostel was to the left of the Blue Mosque (from the perspective of these pictures), but most sights were to the right. We walked past it numerous times, and it never failed to impress.

Directly across from this is the famous Hagia Sophia, built as the official church of the city when the capital was moved from Rome to Constantinople.

There’s a lot to see and do in Istanbul. Even just walking around is awesome.

We took the subway to the other side of the city, the Asian side of Istanbul, across the strait. Here, there’s a former palace.

We also went to Taksim Square. There was a big police presence, due to some recent protests.

That night, we went to a dance of Whirling Dervishes. Honestly, we thought we were getting robbed. The tour operator met us in public then led us down a bunch of sketchy alleyways, into this back room near the train station, and they started bringing out drinks for everyone. We didn’t drink it. We thought it was a con, because the situation was SOOOO sketchy.

Turned out to be a great event!