I will give you one guess as to why I was M.I.A. since my last post… Yes! I was traveling again! This time, we were in the Basque country of France, northern Spain, and Portugal for 23 days. After that fabulous tour, we were home for one week and then took off for eight days to Toronto. Those blogs will eventually be posted, but I last left you in Sicily, and on our way to Turkiye for a back-to-back tour.

Yes, it is now spelled “Turkiye” rather than “Turkey” (like our Thanksgiving bird). Although the country has been spelled “Turkiye” since it became a republic in 1923 (surprise!), the country pushed the rest of the world to recognize and adopt that spelling in 2021. Other countries have been asleep at the switch, however, still hanging on to the incorrect spelling. The United Nations didn’t recognize the “new” spelling until 2024, and Overseas Adventure Travel, the company we use for small group tours, spelled the country “Turkey” in its “Final Document Booklet” they sent us prior to departure. Wake up, World!

It was dark when we arrived at Sultanahmet Palace Hotel, in Istanbul, and when we stepped out of the car, this was the first thing we saw, just across the street from the hotel’s entrance:

(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)

We knew this was going to be a very interesting city…

Istanbul, the largest city in Turkiye, is home to more than 15 million people, most of whom are ethnic Turks with Kurds being the largest minority. Another minority represented in Istanbul are Sepharic Jews, which date back to 390. Unlike Jews in Europe, Ottomon Jews were allowed to work in any profession, and they excelled in commerce and trade as well as medicine. Although 10% of the population in Istanbul were Jews at its highest point, there are now less than 15,000 Jews due to emigration to Israel.

What I didn’t realize is that geographically, Istanbul is situated on two continents— Europe and Asia. About two thirds of the population resides on the Europe side, and the rest live in Asia.  The World’s narrowest straight used for international navigation, the Bosporus, separates the two continents, and it’s a bustling waterway.

Our hotel was perfectly situated, just a short walk from the Hippodrome of Constantinople, the central square, where we enjoyed exploring the mosques, doing photography (day and night), and just watching all the people during our free time. Four nights and three full days was a good amount of time for the planned activities with the group and seeing what we wanted to on our own in the historic city center, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Never did either of us feel unsafe in the city center, day or night, even when I went out on my own to do photography. We thoroughly enjoyed this interesting city!

These are just some of the scenes from our first day in Istanbul before joining our group.

Next up: TURKIYE #2: THE GIGANTIC GRAND BAZAAR