Easter in Istanbul

I spent Easter break exploring the Islamic city of Istanbul, Turkey in the far east. It was a very unforgetable trip! The architecture is far more exciting than I ever pictured it being. The skyline of Istanbul consists of tall minarets jutting up into the sky past everything else.

The first day there, we went to the New Mosque to sketch but ended up being politely asked to leave for right before the Call for Prayer. The Call for Prayer is pretty incredible. People from all over the city, vendors, business men, taxi drives, all rush into the Mosques to pray. The Mosque got so crowded that people were trying to get spots to pray outside in the courtyard. Needless to say, it was a pretty cool site to see.

The spice market and the Grand Bazaar were really fun too. All of the vendors invited you into the stores and offered either Apple tea of Turkish tea, both very good. We had a very fun experience buying Turkish rugs from our teachers friend Ebreheim. He sat us down for a few hours and gave us tea and told us all we needed to ever know about rugs. Then we bought some! I got a Kilim which is an ancient prayer rug. I'm really happy with my purchase and cant wait to display it at home.
The Blue Mosque was such a beautiful site to see. It sits facing the Hagia Sofia with beautiful gardens inbetween them. Although the Blue Mosque was very pretty, it was too touristy to really take in. We sketched there for a couple hours until a lot of the tourists left. The Hagia Sofia was breath-taking to see because it was one of the first churches ever built. Upstairs in the upper galleries there were Viking graffeties carved into the balconies...very cool!

The most memoriable part of the whole trip was without a doubt the Hamman which me and Irene did together. It would not be appropriate to type the details over the internet, but just picture a hot marble slab, a 400 pound Turkish woman, and a lot of steam. I would recommend the Turkish bath to anyone and everyone! You will sleep like a baby afterwards. In the end, if you love shopping, hookah, tea, and a very exotic experience, you will love Istanbul! I feel very grateful that I had the opportunity to visit such a great city architecturally speaking and culturally speaking.