Duration: 5 days
Population: 14,377,019
It's Europe. It's Asia. It's the Middle East. It's none of these. Prayers are called from the minarets starting at 5:00 am, but you can't hear them inside the nightclubs. The men are hairy and proud. The women are bronzed and beautiful. Salads are strange. There are burkas and there are midriffs. The state of the art metro system runs below cobblestone streets. Traffic is unbearable. There's basically no crime if you don't count taxi drivers preying on tourists with slight of hand. It's not really clean. Not really dirty. Not really fun. Not really boring. It is the incomparable city. It is the center of the world.
By the Bosphorus on the European side. Over there across the bridge, Asia.
You can smoke pretty much anywhere in Istanbul. It was kind of cool to see ashtrays on tables again.
A typical salad. It's like ten different things going on. I can identify about four of them. I think I enjoyed as many.
There are lots of street cats in Istanbul. Here are a couple of sweet boys.
At the historic Blue Mosque built in 1616. You have to take your shoes off and carry them around with you in a plastic bag. Women have to cover their heads to enter. You can Google to see what the inside looks like, but I'm pretty sure it can't be fully captured on any camera.
Istanbul.
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