Istanbul, Türkiye - Part 1

The Eiffel Tower had a long run as the world's largest building. The Empire State Building had a shorter run and now it seems like the record is broken every few years. Petronas, Taipei 101, Burj Khalifa, ect. The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was the largest in the world for 1000 years. It was built in 537, It was a church for about 900 years, a mosque for 450, a museum for 80, and now since 2020, it is a mosque once again.

The building is a truly remarkable sight, pictures just can't capture its size and grandeur. There is always an extremely long lineup outside and when we arrived in Istanbul the other night, we noticed there wasn’t much of a line at all, so we followed the people inside. I’m pretty sure now, that we weren’t supposed to be inside at the time as it was prayer time, but nobody said anything. We went back today with a guide who knew just about everything about it.

On our first day we spent hours at the Topkapi Palace, where the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire resided, then today we took the tram over to Galata and Taksim Square before walking back to the old town. Istanbul is unbelievably populated, with over 20 million, almost one in four Turks live here.

You may have heard about the cats of Istanbul. They have become one of the more famous things about the city. They are stray, but well looked after and loved by locals. They are everywhere, you’d be hard-pressed to walk a block without seeing a dozen or so.

We’ll look around the Grand Bazaar and its 2,500 shops again tomorrow. They say if you can't find something in the Grand Bazaar, it probably doesn’t exist.