Rain! Heavy rain: Wet shoes, soaked clothes, flooded highways! No, we’re not getting used to rain during our city-trips. Surprisingly, the Turkish megacity of Istanbul – formely known as Constantinople – presented itself in fog, rain, wind and grey, when we were there end of October. Predicted were sun and around 20° Celcius (~ 68° Fahrenheit). But nevertheless, we made the best out of it:
- We visited the almost 1500 years old Hagia Sophia and her sister temple, the “Blue Mosque” (Sultan Ahmed Mosque).
- We found delicious sweets and had an excellent dinner at a great seafood place on the Asian side of Istanbul – one of those rare restaurants in Turkey, which offer alcohol (beer, wine and Raki).
- We walked the city from famous Taksim Square down to the Galata Tower and further, across the Galata Bridge to the piers for the ferries to Üsküdar, across the Bosphorus.
- We went shopping, got shaved by a barber (me, husband) and massaged in a women’s hamam (wife).
- Furthermore, we didn’t get lost among those officially estimated 15 million people that live in Istanbul!
- And we enjoyed the hospitality of our friends Ema and Peter. Thank you so much! See you next year in Germany!
