Blue Mosque main interior dome – Istanbul, Turkey
Istanbul has so many things to see, we could easily spend months here and never be finished. One of the first must-see items on our list was the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, which is more famously known as the Blue Mosque. The nickname comes from the multitude of blue tiles that adorn the inner pillars and domes. It’s one of the most beautiful buildings we’ve seen on this trip, and we walked out with dozens of photos of the interior mosaics.
After what felt like a million hours of travel, and a near fiasco at JFK airport where we were told that we weren’t actually booked on a flight to Turkey (to which I replied “well we better be, because you took my money two months ago for that ticket”), we managed to make it to this fantastic eastern capital of Istanbul (or Constantinople?).
Totally randomly, two different sets of people we know from our ‘real lives’ back home are here at the same time as us! We met up with one of them tonight for a lovely traditional dinner and ice cream before they had to leave to jet back to NYC and I have to say, there is a real danger of me gaining 100 pounds here. The food is delicious! Loads of eggplant, an abundance of lamb, olives galore. The only downside so far is that most things are sprinkled with pistachio, which I am allergic to. I’ve already taken to carrying around a little note in Turkish that reads “I am VERY allergic to nuts!” to try and avoid any mishaps.
We’re excited to start exploring this part of the world and we hope you continue to follow us as we make our way through the Middle East and into Asia!
The Parallel Life 