Welcome to Istanbul

We started out our first day in Istanbul hitting the must-sees. We first headed to visit the Blue Mosque. It was our first time visiting the inside of a mosque (in Morocco non-muslims are not allowed to enter). The kids really loved the taking-their-shoes-off-aspect of it

Tired girl!

After that we visited the Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia was originally a Christian church build by Justinius, but was turned into a mosque after the Muslims conquered Constantinople. It was really interesting seeing muslin art side-by-side Christian iconography.

Breaking the floor of the Hagia Sophia

The kids had a good time riding their tech deck trottinettes around

Next we headed over to the underground Basilica Cistern.

Evaëlle loved watching the fish swimming around in there.

Enjoying some Kofte (meatballs)

Next we headed to the Grand Bazaar

Enjoying some tea outside of the Grand Bazaar

Next to the Spice Market, which we enjoyed more than the Grand Bazaar : a little more crowded, chaotic and gritty.

That night we went to watch a whirling dervish performance. It was really cool to see, also the amount of silent moments did not mix particularly well with Evaëlle...

And who can resist Turkish Delight? Not us! We sampled a lot and bought some on our way back to the apartment. The kids especially liked all the freebies.