Istanbul not Constantinople

Early Saturday morning at 6:00 am, our ship was scheduled to enter the Dardanelles Straits on it's way to our first port of call, Istanbul. In the ship newsletter, it told about three war memorials from World War I that would be visible on the port side as we entered the strait.

The first, the Helles Memorial, in the form of an obelisk, stands on the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula. It is a memorial to the men who fell in the Gallipoli campaign and whose graves are unknown or lost or buried at sea in the Gallipoli waters. A second smaller obelisk is dedicated to the fallen French troops. The third, a large monument looking like an arch is the Turkish Canakkale Martyr's Monument of Gallipoli, dedicated to the fallen Turkish troops.

I wanted to see these war memorials, so I got up early Saturday morning and was out on deck by 5:45. The sun was just coming up, and the ship had already passed thru the beginning of the strait. We were just passing the 3rd monument, the one that looked like an arch.



I was out on deck again that afternoon as we approached Istanbul. There were mosque's and their minarets everywhere! Our tour guide told us that Istanbul has around 3000 mosques in the city.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (or Blue Mosque) with it's 6 minarets.

Our excursion of Istanbul was on Sunday. Because the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar are closed on Sunday, we were able to get on a tour bus that took us to see them as soon as we docked Saturday afternoon. We only spent 1/2 hour at the Spice Market, and one hour at the Bazaar. Not much time, but it did give us a feel for what was there.
Here are some pictures from the Spice Market:


Dried apricots stuffed with pistachio nuts

Turkish Delight

Inside the Grand Bazaar:


There were street vendors everywhere we went:

He was selling wooden tops. I bought one for 1 euro.




These pretzel things were really good.

He was roasting chestnuts (we didn't get any, because it wasn't Christmas) HA!


Buy a wooden flute!


Outside every attraction would be these people, trying to get you to buy their postcards. "10 for one Euro!" (p.s. That lady in the red shirt on the right is Stacee, the lady I shared a room with. That's her daughter Marin on the left.)

Here's the Blue Mosque. (or Sultan Ahmed Mosque if you are Turkish)


Yea! I was so excited to see the Blue Mosque in person.

Inside. It was beautiful!


This is Hagia Sophia - a building rich with history. First a basicila, later a mosque, and now since 1935, a museum. When it was converted to a mosque, they plastered over many of the mosaics. Some of them have been uncovered, and they were gorgeous.

Close up:


There are some pillars inside Hagia Sophia that originally were part of the Temple of Artemus at Ephesus. The Temple of Artemus was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world



This is the Galata Bridge, that bridges Istanbul of Europe to Istanbul of Asia.