Istanbul 2014 by TaylorBlevins
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  2. Istanbul 2014Istanbul 2014
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We came into Istanbul in the mid afternoon, so we were able to be up on the deck to see the landscape transform. The city is huge (15 million) to be exact, and there are over 3000 active Mosques there as well. As you can see, it is a beautiful area.
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Another look at the city, the unique flag, and walls left over from the Ottoman empire days.
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A photo of our future docking location.
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After arriving here, Tori and quickly headed out to the spice market to spend our Turkish Lira and acquire copious amounts of spices?! Well, at least that is what Tori wanted to do.
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The spice market is very photogenic and a very unique place that feels of the middle east. Sorry for all the photos in this album. We were in port here for 2 days, and I think this was one of our favorite cities. As such, I took about 300 photos here alone. Rest assured, I have not uploaded all of them.
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We purchased an entire kilogram of Turkish delight. I have to admit, I usually cant swallow the stuff. But here they made it with local honey and the pistachio variety was delicious.
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All olives are not created equal. A trip to Greece and Turkey taught us that. Here are just a few of the local varieties. Fun fact-- you cannot eat olives straight off of the tree. They must be brined for several months before they are edible.
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Here is our spice guy. Tori bought all kinds of spices from this guy. Her favorite was the Iranian saffron. Holy begeezers that stuff is expensive!
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I was able to take this picture thanks to the trusty tripod that dad got me. Thanks dad! This is not a 'green screen' backdrop, that is really what the mosque looked like at night.
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Head scarfs had to be worn in all the mosques here. Also, it was Ramadan while we were visiting. Ramadan is one of the five Muslim pillars that lasts a lunar month. During Ramadan muslims do not eat, or drink anything while the sun is up (yes that includes water). They also dont smoke or have sex or anything. So, once the sun goes down, they all gather and have feasts and enjoy the spoils they give up during the day. Since it was nighttime, in this photo, all the Muslims were out eating. It was like a festival.
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Tori and I smoking shisha or hookah at an outdoor area. You can also see we are drinking Turkish tea. That stuff was delicious. Finally, there was live music playing in the back ground and a whirling dervish twirling around on stage. It was surreal.
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Ok, so you are going to see a lot of photos of the old palace of the Ottoman Sultan. If your history is rusty, the Ottoman empire reigned for 600 years. Yeah, kind of a big deal. As you can imagine, it was very ornate.
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Some arabic writing or something... Tori could probably explain that better than me.
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Gates to the castle that we were in.
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Bed of the Sultan. His room was super bling'd out.
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A shot of the roof.
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A shot of the windows. You can see just how much detail went into this stuff. Also, the treasure that they have in the museum here were amazing. We saw Moses' walking stick, King David's sword, Joseph's turbine... to name a few.
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This is the entrance to the Grand Bazaar. To me, it felt a lot like the spice market.
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A shot of the inside of the grand bazaar.
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This was a call to prayer on the streets. You can see all the muslims lining up to pray. I took a quick snap, but it felt disrespectful, so this isnt a great shot.
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This is an inside view of the famous Blue Mosque. If you have read Dan Brown's latest book 'Inferno' then you know all about it. Neither Tori nor myself have ever been inside a mosque, and it is very rare to be allowed inside if you are not a muslim. This place is an exception and a real treat.
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Shoes had to be removed, pants had to be worn, no shoulders allowed to show, and women had to wear headscarves. It was massive in there, but truth be told--it smelled like feet!!
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Just some pretty arabic writing on the walls.
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A little better shot of the massive inside. You can see how low the lamps are. That is because they used to have to fill them with oil (prior to having electricty) so it was easier to fill down low. Personally, I thought it detracted from the beauty having all those chains coming down from the ceiling holding the lamps.
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An outside and daytime shot of the blue mosque.
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This mosque is no longer in use and is now a museum. Again, you can learn all about it in Dan Brown's book.
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Some more arabic writing on the walls. I actually found this place to be far more beautiful on the inside than the Blue Mosque.
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This is a cool picture because you can see a painting of Mary. Although Islam and Christianity have many similar stories and histories... it is rare to have the Virgin Mary up on the walls of a mosque.
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I liked this sign because this is the way that they spell taxi in Turkey.
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