So Long and Thanks for all the Kebabs, Istanbul!

Tuesday, our final day in Istanbul, was rainy and overcast. We walked down the hill from our AirBnB and took the tram to the Basilica Cistern, another of Istanbul's major tourist attractions. Istanbul has no large natural sources of freshwater in the old part of the city. To solve this problem, the ancient Romans, and the Byzantines after the collapse of the western Roman empire, built a series of cisterns throughout the city over the centuries. The Basilica Cistern, the largest of these, was capable of holding 80,000 cubic meters of water! It's a pretty spectacular underground space, with some interesting columns that were taken from existing and ruined ancient buildings. This has been a pretty common practice throughout history. Next, we went to the archaeology museum, which is also near Topkapi Palace. The museum is undergoing a major renovation so unfortunately only about half of it was open. The star of the show is the Alexander sarcophagus, a wonderfully preserved stone sarcophagus that is more than 2300 years old.

Catching the tram on a rainy morning.

Inside the basilica cistern.

Thanks stranger for taking our picture!

A re-used medusa column base.

The mood lighting is a vibe.

More columns taken from other structures.

Perfect loaf cat. 10/10. No notes.

Walking around quaint tourist neighborhoods on a rainy day.

The Istanbul Archaeology Museum.

The museum has a lot of ancient statues.

We love a good veiled sculpture.

The Alexander Sarcophagus. Originally, this would have been brightly painted.

Amazing paint remnants - this is 2300 year old paint.

Next we had lunch at Dubb Ethnic, which had good Google reviews. In general, Google did not lead us astray - a far cry from the pre-internet days of horrible tourist restaurants. A mother/daughter pair of Croatians sat next to us and called the cats matchka - flashback to our Croatia trip! Paul ordered chicken Kabob but they accidentally made a whole mixed grill (and gave it to us for the price of just the chicken dish), we took the extra meat to feed city cats. David had pasta, which was decent, and we ate outside in a nice area under an awning. 

We continued with more museums since it was a rainy day. The Turkish and Islamic art museum is in an old palace. When we finished we hung out under a covering outside (but inside the museum grounds) overlooking the blue mosque, waiting for the rain to die down a bit. We then walked to Eminonu Pier and boarded a boat for a 90 minute Bosphorus tour boat. It went up the European side and down the Asian side. The rain held off, and we had a few moments where the clouds parted and there was nice sunset lighting. Along the tour we saw castles, palaces, and the oldest remaining waterfront traditional house/mansion (yali). The two women next to us had their own tour guide in Spanish, and David briefly spoke with them. We definitely recommend getting on a boat while in Istanbul. The ferries might be a better option if you have more time, since you can get on and off at different stops. There are even entier car-free islands with cute towns that people visit for hiking and lunch. Considering our limited time and the uncertain weather, our tour was definitely worth it and a good option if you have limited time (which we did, since we missed a whole day in Istanbul due to our cancelled flight).

On the way to lunch we passed by some more old columns.

The dip sampler at Dubb. Delightful!

David bucked the trend and got some pasta.

Paul on the other hand...got the meat mega plate (on mistake).

Holy cow that's a lot of meat.

This matchka (cat) was here for the meat plate!

The area around our lunch spot was really cute!

Obelisk and minarets.

Museum cats.

A cool device to help travelers find Mecca.

A carpet with a design of 1800s Istanbul.

We had to wait out the rain a bit, but honestly there are worse views.

David on the boat tour.

We went by Dolmabace Palace, which unfortunately we didn't have time to visit.

Some modern skyscrapers poking out behind a cute harbor area.

Obligatory boat selfie!

Ortakoy Mosque. We wanted to check out this area of town, but ran out of time.

Passing by Rumeli Hisari, a 15th century fortress.

The oldest yali in Istanbul, Koprulu Amcazade Huseyin Yalisi, from 1699, currently under renovation.

Yalis at sunset.

Yet another palace! There was so much to see.

The Maiden's Tower

Boats lining up to enter the Golden Horn.

After disembarking from our boat tour, we went to the nearby Egyptian spice market then walked across the bridge back to our AirBnB. We hadn't had pide (a Turkish flatbread) yet, so we had some for dinner at Bankalar Karadeniz, followed up by some ice cream, wrapping up our time in Istanbul.

The Egyptian Market, or Spice Market.

Turkish Delight in the market.

Pide for dinner.

On Wednesday we woke up at 6:30am and took the train to the airport. We had access to the Turkish Airline lounge, which was great since we got a nice breakfast and a fancy bathroom.

Super early in the morning is the only time you'll see this street so empty!

Yay, lounge access.

Next stop - Greece!