Turkey Day One

We spent the last week of October in Istanbul Turkey. We had the week off of school for fall break and since we will soon have to start paying for Sadie's plane tickets we figured this was a good time to fly to Istanbul. Luckily, we left Istanbul the day before the bombing.
We left Astana at 4 am on Sunday, Oct 24th. We arrived in Turkey at 6:40 am Turkey time after a 6 hour flight. One of our student's parents was also on the flight and had the day to kill in Istanbul before catching his connecting flight so he hung out with us for the day. We found our way to the tram system and a nice worker on his way home made sure we were able to buy our tokens and get to the right train.
We made our way to the area that our hotel was in and eventually found it. It was still to early to check in so we dropped our luggage and walked towards the sea. By this time Sadie was ready for her nap and she fell asleep on Nina while we sat on a park bench watching the birds fish.
After Sadie's nap we checked into our room and then headed for the Aya Sophia. For more on the Aya Sophia check out the following link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia


The Aya Sophia was amazing; the mosaics were probably the best part. After spending the afternoon walking around the old church/mosque we eat dinner on a roof-top terrace across the street from out hotel. The views of the sea, the Aya Sophia, and the Blue Mosque were amazing.

You'll need to check back often over the next couple of days as I add more photos.