Istanbul Photos 1

1) View from my first room

2) Galata Bridge (links New City with Old City/Sultanahmet) - lots of people fishing day and night. This is looking north toward across the Golden Horn to the

part of the city I was staying in (Beyoglu - past the Galata Tower upper left)

3) Street art near my hotel

4) Typical street scene near an intersection I passed every day.

5) This cat was just hanging out on this canopy when I was wandering kind of lost.

6) Istiklal - always a crazy busy street - sort of the Champs Élysées of Istanbul.

7) I actually got inside the gates of this church on my last day, but I like this night shot best.

8) Yeni Carsi - one of the main streets I walked up and down - got me to the Metro (light rail). As you can see, the streets and sidewalks are both very narrow, and you often find yourself with a car within about 1' of you if you step into the street.

9) Sultan Ahmet Mosque - known to tourists at the famous Blue Mosque (because of the blue tiles inside. Mosques aren't supposed to be this adorned, but no one was going to tell the sultan otherwise).

10) The incomparable Hagia Sophia (Byzantine/Greek name when it was a Christian church)/Aya Sofia (Ottoman/Turkish name as a mosque when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453) - built in 537 (the third mosque on this site - the other two were burned down in protests)!

11) Fountain between Blue Mosque (below) and Hagia Sophia.

12) Same fountain with Hagia Sophia in the background.

13) Inside the Sultan Ahmet/Blue Mosque.

14) Blue Mosque - only Muslim men are allowed inside the area below (we were behind a fence). The women have to pray in the back or outside. There are five calls to prayer per day.