Another Trip to Istanbul

Again, last week I went to Istanbul, but that time accompanied with my husband. I wanted him to see how beautiful is Istanbul. We visited the touristical and historical sites of course and new ones too, for me. We stayed at Taksim square, walked along the Istiklal street many times, had dinner and lunches there. We visited Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, the amazing palace Dolmabahçe. The Spice Bazaar and Grand Bazaar. We crossed the Bosphorus to the Asian Side. We spent a couple of days in Sultanahmat… in restaurants, cafés, touring and shopping.

We took the ferry to the Prince’s Islands, reached the last, fourth one and stayed there a couple of hours, had some picnic-lunch by the sea. We rented bicycles and toured the calm, nice streets of the island.

We walked alot. Ate alot. Drank alot of turkish tea. Laughed alot and enjoyed our time . I won’t mind going back to Istanbul one more time. Life seems easy there, people, tourists everywhere, at anytime of the day, at noon or midnight, it’s the same. Whenever you feel down, you can just walk a little or take the tram, few minutes, and you’ll reach the sea. Have a cup of turkish tea and enjoy the sun, the blue sky, the blue sea, the amazing views. I’ll leave you with some pictures. Enjoy as I did.

The Joy of Walking in Rome

I had that unfamiliar, relaxed, amazing feeling while walking in the streets of Rome, a feeling I never felt in my own country. I think I can name it, a feeling of freedom, a feeling of belonging to the street, a feeling of walking without being stared at, a feeling of tranquility and quietness where things seemed clearer to me. 

Streets enriched with beautiful trees. I felt their greatness as they were close to me. There were no boundaries, no limits, no barriers. I felt I could hear my own inner self. There’s something about Rome. What I’m sure of is that it was a magical feeling, and I can’t wait to go back to Rome.

Our Trip to Italy & Paris

Louvre, Paris

I have missed blogging. It’s been a long time since my last post, I have been busy preparing for my wedding, as many of you know. I am happy and fortunate to have our wedding being held at my village, my beloved beautiful home. Sharing these joyful moments with family and friends, all present at the home that I cherish alot, was a true bliss. We had “the time of our life”. 🙂

As for the adventurous side, our two-weeks trip to Italy and Paris was a huge excitement. My husband and I spent 10 days in Italy, between Rome, Tuscany, Naples and Milan and 4 days in Paris. We had so much fun, we explored alot of places, we walked alot, we ate alot of yummii foods. We came back home, a little bit down, missing our adventure, missing the streets of Italy, and planning our next trip to Italy for next year.

The Colosseum .... and my husband!!

I can’t not mention the food we had in Italy. Although we ate alot, and we felt full after each meal, we couldn’t resist the scrumptious sweets and snacks. The pizza and pasta are way different and tasty than the ones we have here. They are just different, I think one of the reasons is the beautifully red tomato sauce, the plum italian tomatoes are so rich in flavor.Yummii. Un délice.

The beautiful Vatican

The most delicious pizza we have ever tasted was at L’antica pizzeria Da Michele in Naples, I knew about this place on tv from a famous chef, he recommended it, so I made up my mind to visit it when we’ll be in Italy, so we went to Naples, specially to eat at Da Michele, we searched for the street and for our luck it wasn’t that far from the train station. How delightful we were when we found the place and satisfied when we tasted the pizze. They only have 2 kinds of pizza, margherita and marinara; of course we had the two. The pizze were thin, rich, flavorful, extremely delicious. I recommend every one who travels to Italy, to go visit L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele. Later on, I found out it was the pizzeria where Julia Roberts ate in the movie “Eat, Pray, Love”. And, of course, I was thrilled.

Pizza margherita

Pizza marinara

While we were in Naples, after eating at Da Michele, we headed to Pompei for few hours and we had a couple of hours left until our scheduled train back to Rome, so we spent them in Sorrento, and we were extremely happy we did. Sorrento overlooks the bay of Naples and is famous for lemon cultivation. Of course we needed more time to discover it all. But at least we ate few specialties; gnocchi alla sorrentina, tiramisu, some limoncello, and few pastries like a babà and alot of shopping. We had so much fun.

Sorrento

Doing some soap & souvenirs shopping..

Lucca, is a city in Tuscany, known for its Renaissance-era walls. Lucca was a last-minute plan. We were, on the train, heading to Pisa when we decided to pass by Lucca; I was introduced to it on one of the blogs I read. And we were amazed by this beautiful, quiet, old city. Trees everywhere. Nice stones everywhere. Beautiful, wide passeggiate. We wandered the streets of Lucca, and every via we enter, we were amazed by the beauty of this small city. We also passed by a farmer market, I bought different flavored honey jars, I love honey alot.

Duomo di San Martino

Una passeggiata...

Lucca

Lucca, Torre delle ore.

One evening, we took the bus from Florence to Fiesole. This amazing town overlooks Florence. We saw there San Francesco monastery, had dinner next to it in a restaurant that also overlooks Florence. We had so much fun.

Fiesole

Florence scene from Fiesole

Venice

Yummii things in Venice..

Venice

Sunflower fields in Tuscany

Il Duomo, Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, in Florence

Duomo di Milano. Magnificent.

Nice fountain... my husband freshening up..

Paris, from the Eiffel Tower.

Chateau Versailles

Trip to Istanbul: Food

I will start this post by telling you about the food market on the asian side, the Anatolian side of Istanbul, located east of Bosphorus. We took the bus from Besiktas to Kadiköy and on the way back we took a ferry. It is a main zone for shopping. This is the first time i’ve been to a food market and i just loved it, so beautiful, shop owners inviting you to come inside their shops. 

A big area with small streets and narrow corners enriched with people, food, shoppers, tourists. It was great, I was so pleased and happy mingling in these streets. 

The shops offer a wide variety of fruits, fresh and dried, vegetables, fish, bakeries. And of course the restaurants, bars and ice cream stands. 

variety of vegetables

olives

Continue for more photos…. 

Trip to Istanbul: Bazaars

Every street you walk in, on each side, you see different kind of restaurants, coffee shops, sweets shops. And all the vitrines are loaded with appetizing food, presented and displayed in a very beautiful way that you must stop and have a look and of course go inside and pick something. It’s mouthwatering.

The two places you have to visit when you go to Istanbul are the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar. The streets are loaded with tourists.

The Grand Bazaar is one of the largest covered markets in the world with 5,000 shops and 60 streets. It is well known for its jewelry, hand-painted ceramics, carpets, embroideries, spices and antique shops. And once you enter the Bazaar, you are lost. You never go out from the same door you get in to the Bazaar. It’s like a labyrinthe there. So exciting. You keep saying, Oooh, look at that, look at this!! Woow.

Hand painted porcelains

Souvenirs

 Continue for more photos…

 

Trip To Istanbul: Sightseeing

I’m going for a five days trip to Istanbul. I heard it’s a beautiful city with all its historical sites and its delicious food.

I’ll be posting pictures from there, about food, scenes, streets of Istanbul.

Here i am back from a 5 days vacation to Istanbul exhausted from walking all day long yet fascinated by the beauty of the city. The fact that you can see the asian side while being on the european side is amazing. The weather was sunny, just great, clear blue sky. The hotel where we stayed was in Taksim square; it’s a huge square full of people, day and night, buses, cars, noises, restaurants, cafés; Istanbul is full of life, people are so energetic, so alive. 

You just can’t be bored in Istanbul. I just loved it.

The pictures below were taken from the Galata Tower that affords a panoramic view of Istanbul.

Bosphorus Bridge

Topkapi Palace

More photos inside…