Istanbul was a great mash between feeling Mediterranean and Middle Eastern. We were blown away by how massive the city is in both size and population. The buildings seemed to go on for as far as the eye could see! It was noisy, busy, a bit dirty, but all in a good way. The chaos and sheer number of people gave the city a lot of life. The drivers are psycho! We really enjoyed how different the city and its culture was but we nonetheless felt very comfortable there.
A giant, yummy tower of Turkish delight!
Inside the Hagia Sophia Mosque
Even in Istanbul we can find Canadiana!
Check out this shit hole! This wasn't a back-alley washroom or anything...it was actually the single unisex toilet in a very busy bar!
Inside the Grand Bazaar -- the very tidy jewellery section. Unfortunately we didn't take any photos of the more chaotic sections of the bazaar. It's a giant maze where finding your way around and making sense of its layout is next to impossible!
The Sultanahmet Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque)
Inside the Blue Mosque. The little section of the floor (that you can barely see here) is only allowed to be used by people who are actually there to pray.
The Blue Mosque was so fantasmagorical that Stefan's face almost fell off!
Ancient Turkish temple entrance? Or cool painting in a metro station?
The entrance to Topkapi Palace. Inside their jewellery collection were two huge diamonds, one of which was 86 karats! And the other one was just a bit smaller. We were gonna buy them for each other but our backpacks were too heavy :P
Inside the Spice Bazaar: There's no spice they don't have... it's so bizarre! (Ha! courtesy of Deano)
There's a green guy doing "The Running Man" in the pedestrian crossing light! Say WHAAAAT! He was no help in crossing the street though because Turkish drivers are nuts!
Here are two photos of our first Couchsurfing hosts, Evren and Elçin. We didn't get to spend too much time with them but they were very sweet and welcoming!
Here's our second host in Istanbul, Tuncay. He was a lot of fun to hang out with, very energetic and social! We stayed with Evren and Elçin on the European side and with Tuncay on the Asian side... what a great way to see Istanbul!
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