Istanbul Durma*!!

Istanbul... a glimpse of home.

Everyone who talked to me in the past days is probably sick of hearing me.. but it is true. Istanbul reminds me SO much of Lisbon and home! The hills, the people, the places, the river... It is as if Lisbon and Istanbul are twin cities, with their remarkable similarities and, of course, their individual unique characteristics.

I loved every second of it and I definetely want to go back and explore more of Turkey!

It all started with 7 hours waiting at the airport for the plane to take off and 4 hours journey but developed like this...

Highlights:
- Colt weather and rain!!! (yes, it is an highlight, if you are coming from no rain no cold Dubai!!)
- Raky, Raky, Raky;
- Cuban Bar and dancing salsa with random people
- Doner, Doner, Doner

There is nothing better than a "good old" beef Doner after hard clubing!

- Amazing cruise trip on the Bosphorus River

Turkish coffee time! :) (I swear, if they just painted the bridge red and called the river Tagus.. I would be in Lisbon!)

- Topkapi Palace

Outside Topkapi Palace


Topkapi Palace Gate, facing the Blue Mosque

- Tea, tea tea

Being a tea lover I was in heaven, drinking tea all the time! This was one of my favourite spots.. I could definetely see myseld spending "reading afternoons" here! In the photo you can see the coolest travelmates, Mat and Alisha!!

- Meeting my favorite Turkish guy again! And partying hard the Turkish night with him, his lovely sister and her boyfriend! You guys are great!!!

I, Ali and Alisha and the sunset in Istanbul

Enjoying the Turkish Night

- Learning our first turkish words: tamam, ofendam!! ofendam! and numbers up to 6!!! "ichtana tchai, please!" :) :)
- Baklova (amazing sweet that Alisha and I ate all the time)
- Backgammon afternoon, listening to the rain outside, playing with the cat

- Mosques, lots of mosques and their minarets, creating a magic horizon over Istanbul
- Raky Bottle before leaving the hotel
- Turkish live music at a random bar and belly dancing at random turkish disco.
- Screaming "Dubai words" to get into a disco for more than 30 min (random, SO random)
- Hague Sophia and the Blue Mosque (beautiful, just beautiful!!).

Hague Sophia - It was built as a church and then transformed into a mosque. Inside you can see Christ and Virgin Mary mosaics face to face to Islamic inscriptions and ornaments. Simply magical.

The Blue Mosque. Just beautiful and peaceful. Although you can only see 4 in the picture, this mosque has actually 6 minarets! Impressive hein?

One of the beauties of the Blue Mosque and Hague Sophie is the fact that they are facing eachother and are really close to eachother. This photo of the Blue Mosque was taken from one of the windows, inside Hague Sophie.

- Opening the hotel room window and thinking I was in Lisbon every morning.
- People on the street, walking arm in arm. Smiling.
- Being toured around Turkish bars and discos by these Kirgystan girl and Istanbul guy who barely knew us and barely spoke english. Incredibly nice people!
- Kids line fishing over the Bosphorus

Its amazing how everyone just loves to come and spend their time fishing on the Bosphorus.. Reminded me of when my brother, father and I used to do it too...

Ovearll, the entire trip was an Highlight. And certainly one of my best times since I left Portugal.. Cant wait for the next travel!

*Durma means Non Stop in Turkish. The funny thing is that it means "to sleep" in portuguese.