Part 2 - Three turkeys in Turkey...

After we got our coffee we were finally ready to head into the city and hopefully check into our hotel. We jumped on the metro and off we went into town. It was hard to really know where we were going and what stop was ours. Luckily an older university professor noticed our predicament and helped us find the stop. Our hotel was lovely and we were excited to get to sleep a bit after the rough night.

Istanbul was a really interesting place. There were so many people. Unlike many of the other Muslim countries we've been in you couldn't even tell it was Ramadan. People were eating and drinking. The only noticeable part was the lights on the mosques wishing us a joyful Ramadan. We spent our days walking around the city, eating the yummy kebabs (a pita sandwich with chicken or lamb and veggies) and taking in the sights.

A guy cutting off the meat for a traditional Turkish kebab.

We spent some time at the Hagia Spohia a beautiful church built in the 6th century by the romans. It was later taken over by Muslims and made into a mosque. Now it is a museum and is incredible in size and beauty. It was incredible to see the mosaics of Christ and the Virgin Mary in a Mosque.

The church being dedicated to Baby Jesus by Justinian and the city of Istanbul by Constantine.

We also went to the Topkapi Palace. It was pretty incredible too. The part that was most fascinating to me was all the incredible jewels. There were sword hilts covered in emeralds and rubies and an incredible 32 carat diamond. Unfortunately they wouldn't let us snap any photos of the jewels, but they were pretty amazing.

The entrance to Topkapi Palace

Josiah and I enjoying the sun on a balcony in the palace.

Our last night in Istanbul we went to a restaurant that looked over the harbor and gave us a great view of the Blue Mosque. The food was so good and raised our appreciation for Turkish style yummies. Josiah of course loved it, and especially enjoyed getting to watch all the birds fly past as the sun set.

At the yummy restaurant.

After a great time in Istanbul we were off to Yemen, the main destination on our trip. We flew out of Istanbul late in the evening and excitedly anticipated the adventures that lay ahead.