What the Derv - Day 1 | Exploring Turkey | In photos and a few words

This post was inspired by a conversation I had with @nathankaye about our impressions of visiting Turkey.

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Sitting in her cubicle across from mine, my best friend from our old job, Mo, was looking at her screen intensely while making a skeptical sounding "Hmmm..."

"Hey Momo, what's up?"

"Hmmm... Check this out Anka, I found this deal online...
13 Day Tour to Turkey. A 10-day guided bus tour with overnight stops in six different cities across the county, with high-end hotel accommodations, that include breakfasts and dinners... Also including round trip flights...

"Nice, how much is it?"

"About $1300."

"For everything?"

"Yeah I know, right?"

"Holycarapsticks, Mo! That's a crazy good deal! If you're doing this, I'm in!"

So we booked the tour.

The next few months I spent rushing to get my US citizenship status and passport. Bought some warm clothes and also I decided to take my old film camera - Canon Rebel 2000, EOS - for its last ride, before the photo-lab by my house closes its doors for the last time... oh yeah, that was 2011.

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Day One:

Waking up to the omnipresent sound of morning prayer brought a sudden flush of childhood memories of growing up in Israel. My friend Mo, who experienced it for the first time was amazed, and at that moment we had that familiar to all travelers realization, that we are in another country.

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The first day in Istanbul was a dive into the rich history of the city, visiting the most prominent sights of both the Byzantine and the Ottoman Empire.

Starting with Hagia Sophia domed basilica (Byzantine)

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The Blue Mosque (Ottoman)... Its actually blue inside. But I somehow managed to make it blue on the outside too. .. also boss-like stray cats were everywhere; they seemed to be completely unimpressed by the crowds.

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Mo rocking the Topkapi Palace
The historical residence of Mahmed the Conqueror who fought the fierce Vlad (Dracula) the Impaler, to take Wallachia in mid 15th century.

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Day one, tip:
Start drinking Turkish tea (not the tourist apple tea), Turkish brand bottled water and the fresh Pomegranate juice, that you can buy in the streets - it will magically transform your skin, hair and make you loose weight. Seriously, one glass of fresh squeezed pomegranate will make you temporarily immortal.

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Then the group was dropped at The Grand Bazaar - a 500 year-old shopping maze with endless halls in every direction and countless shops. With not much time to explore, we decided to not give-in to all the shining objects, lights, colorful trinkets and go straight for the number one thing to buy in Turkey - Leather.

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Spice Bazaar... another maze, this time to mess with your chemical senses.

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The day ended with rain and a fairy sunset over the city minarets (that I wan't able to fully capture). The bus took us back to the hotel with our group of 40 US tourists of respectable age, a young married couple from NY, Mo and myself to rest before departing to another city.

To be continued...