We are in Istanbul where we are staying for 4 nights. We took Turkish airlines from Chicago to Istanbul. We did not get our own cubicle but the seats did go flat and the food is great. The movie selection left a lot to be desired. We left Tallahassee at 2pm on Valentine’s Day and arrived in Istanbul on the 15th at 4pm.

We are staying at the Ritz Carlton in Istanbul and after checking in we decided to go for a walk and get our bearings. Our only experience with Istanbul is from a cruise ship where we have done some overnights so once we made our way to the port we knew exactly where we were.

Our room.

We wandered around for a bit and we were surprised how busy everything was on a Sunday night. Even though there were no cruise ships in port the area around the port is a big shopping and eating area and people were out and about and stores stayed open late. We grabbed a drink in a pub on a side street and shared some parmesan fries. On our walk home along the Bosphorus river I got a piece of grilled corn from a street vendor and Kathy had a couple of bites from it. I don’t think it was the corn but I woke up during the night with GI cramps and nausea and never could get up and out on Monday. Kathy stayed with me and I basically slept the day away and finally felt better Monday evening. So first full day in Istanbul was not very memorable.

Today we had a 5 hour food tour and I was a little worried how I would do but since it was paid for and I was feeling better we decided to chance it. We did this same tour 2 years ago and loved it. We got an early start because I was still feeling a little puny and we had a 3 mile walk to get to the starting point of the tour.

Galata tower from the Bosphorus. We had intermittent rain. The tour had 10 people on it and the one thing I was dying to try, after the food tour last time, was a blueberry soaked olive. The tour starts in the grand bazaar which was not too crowded at that hour of the morning.

One of the entrances to the grand bazaar Colorful dried fruit for sale.

After going through the bazaar you go to the food stalls on the outside and the guide picks up cheeses, spreads and bread for our breakfast. Much to my disappointment I did not see any blueberry soaked olives. Plus I did not really feel up to an olive yet.

The breakfast selection was just as we remembered it with lots of bites. After breakfast you take the ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul. The Bosphorus separates the European side from the Asian side. We are staying on the European side. We went for Iskender kabobs, which I remember also from last time, they were good but again not as great as I remembered. We had 9 stops total and it really is a ton of food but there were several places I did not eat anything. The fried fish stop with the sardines and the mackerel sandwich was a definite no. Yogurt is a big part of their diet in Turkey and they get offended when you talk about Greek yogurt since they feel theirs is much better. The other stop opted out of was the lamb roasted over coals on a spit wrapped in the animals sweetbreads, the explanation was enough to put most of our group off.

1. 2. 3.

1. is a family restaurant where the women hand roll very thin film dough with a smear of cheese and onions and then deep fry it.
2. Is thin dough with ground beef and some spices on it. You put fresh parley and squeeze some lemon on it, roll it up and eat it.
3. Hand made dumplings with ground beef in them and a yogurt sauce with a chili and butter over the top.

After our last stop for dessert, Turkish ice cream and baklava, the tour was over and we took the ferry back to old town where the grand bazaar is.

Our tour group with our guide standing in the back. In the metal cups is some sort of milk/yogurt drink and Kathy drank mine. I opted for a Coke Zero.

We walked back through the grand bazaar and it was definitely busier than it was in the morning.

We did manage to find my blueberry soaked olives and I tried one and guess what? It was not as great as I remembered. Oh well not like I needed to carry a bunch of blueberry soaked olives around with me.

We walked back through the port area on our way back to the hotel and decided we needed nothing else to eat today after the food tour. We walked 11.5 miles between getting to the food tour, the food tour and then walking around after.

We have no plans for our last day in Istanbul and it is supposed to be raining again. The weather is cool, in the 60s. Not as cool as we thought it would be but still nice.