A Turkish tale

The last 2 days in Istanbul were spent visiting the various historic tourist sites with the guide. Kanen was our guide on the walking tour of the old town and took us around the Blue Mosque, Topkapi palace and the most impressive of all the 6th century AD Hagia Sophia mosque with its 6 Minarets. It was built as a church before the birth of Islam and then converted to a mosque by the Ottomans. It was a museum from 1934 until 2 years ago when it was declared as a mosque again with daily prayers and hence women were required to cover their heads inside. The chandeliers and the paintings on the ultra tall ceilings and the dome were magnificent to say the least; pictures cannot do justice to the awe this place evokes especially knowing it was built 1500 years ago when humanity barely had any modern day resources and infrastructure for construction. There were throngs of visitors when we were there around 3pm because of the closure of the mosque from President Erdogan’s visit earlier in the...

Formerly Constantinople, this cosmopolitan city that sits across the 2 continents had no semblance to the places we had visited so far except the language and the culture. Istanbul is ultra-modern with its strategic location, a melting pot of business, trade and tourism and yet has managed to preserve the thousands of years of history and religion in the 3000+ mosques, castles, palaces, baazars. After all, it’s the same history that morphed it into its modern day position in the world. We had the first day to explore the city on our own, so we rode the Metro and soaked in the hustle and bustle at the Taksim square with a side of pigeon droppings on some of us after the birds were over fed by the 8 kids! My solo morning 5K run through the old city and along the Bosphorus sea charged me up and opened up my appetite for the European breakfast spread of various cheeses, eggs, coffee and yogurt-muesli-fruits bowl. Istiklal street lived upto its hype lined with shops and over a dozen “ma...

A day of adventures No wonder Cappadocia is called the hot air balloon capital of the world with 150-160 of them flying together 250-260 days in the year. What makes this region special for this experience is the unique landscapes, weather and the handsome pilots as per our guy, Ahmed!! It was a breathtaking experience indeed viewing the entire valley from the sky perched in the hot air balloon albeit freezing cold making our toes uncomfortably frozen towards the end of the ride. Pictures do no justice to the views, one has to soak it all in while experiencing those moments. Before checkout we had our ATV ride through the valley. Parishi decided to stay in and unwind in the jacuzzi in the room healing her sore throat. Neha sustained an injury on her right elbow as her ATV toppled over on the first slope in the first minute of the ride. She had no major injuries thankfully and Krisha was safe behind her. The thrill factor was high for me behind one of the company’s dudes who gave m...