Exploring Istanbul, Turkey! _ Travel Vlog.

Welcome to Istanbul! We finally made it here to Turkey in Istanbul and it is an absolutely vibrant city. Today we're going to be taking a tour. It's going to show us a lot about the old parts of Istanbul and it's absolutely beautiful because we keep seeing a ton of mosques everywhere and hearing the calls to prayer at all times of the day which is such a change from what you know used to. What do you have there Omar? So good, corn with a ton of salt. So we just took that tour, learned a ton about Istanbul and now she gave us a suggestion to try a fish sandwich. So now we're on the Golden Horn and funny enough this is Kate. Say hi Kate. Hi! We met her at the airport in Cappadocia when we did the hot air balloons but guess who we found when we tried to do the tour? Found her! So we're gonna try to find some of those fish sandwiches hopefully. They're delicious. Our touristic key spots to get them because the fish sandwiches are prepared on these boats that are actually rocking. Oh my goodness! Whoa this thing is huge! We're entering our very first mosque and today we visited the Suleymaniye mosque and they have a few respectful rules which are to take off your shoes, wear modest clothing, cover the shoulders and cover your hair and now we just entered into this absolutely beautiful mosque. We're gonna try to find our way to these rooftops to get an even better view. We're making our way into the Grand Bazaar. It's much more touristic than it is useful for those in Istanbul but it's still fun to experience so I think we're in it right now. The Grand Bazaar is one of the largest covered markets in the world and it attracts up to 400,000 visitors daily. It was so easy to wander in and see around the 4,000 shops it has. We went on a riverboat tour on the Bosphorus River and we were able to see amazing landmarks from the river view and for only 15 Turkish lira, it was a great way to get to know Istanbul. Today is a new day. We're walking on Istikl Street which is pretty much Istanbul's shopping street district. As you can see even on a Monday, it is crowded. Everyone's doing their shopping. Today we're gonna go check out Galata Tower, Taksim Square. We had a recommendation on which real Turkish coffee to try so we're gonna do that. Today's gonna be a lot of fun. We asked him what toppings he suggested and he suggested eight different toppings. Where do you start? Here it is, Galata Tower. Oh that's a really long line. Our tour guide told us a tip that in case that was too long or if you didn't want to spend the money, you can actually go to this cafe, and then go to the top and get the same view for either free or for a coffee. Can of barks, sleepy. Here she is, Hagia Sophia. Behind me is the Hagia Sophia and over time it has hosted three different religions but recently they have secularized it so it's no longer practicing any religion but is now a museum. One of the most fascinating things you can see, Mother Mary, Jesus as a baby but also inscriptions of Islam all together in one place. We just finished visiting the Hagia Sophia. It was an amazing museum to show how much this building has been through over the centuries, absolute centuries. Now we're trying to make our way over to the Blue Mosque before they do the noon prayer or the afternoon prayer which is 1pm so hopefully we make it. And of course, just our luck, it's under construction. So just as usual, women cover their heads, their hair, wear modest clothing again or else they'll give you stuff to borrow for free and there is much more of a crowd here at the Blue Mosque such that they actually have like a visitor's entrance and a private entrance so if I were you, definitely visit both the Blue Mosque and the Suleymaniye because the Suleymaniye Mosque, people don't really go to it just because it's a little farther and this one's way crowded so just go to both. Inside out and upside down, no stress, like Alice, like Alice, Alice. So funny story, we were actually on our way to KFC when we just ran across that random cafeteria point and pay type place. It was awesome, it was delicious. I'll put the link in the description for you guys to try it but it was really great because it was kind of like authentic Turkish homemade food versus like kebabs and donor kebabs that we're used to. So I made it to Taksim Square and it looks like it's got a new mosque being made, it's got a statue of some of Turkey's most famous and influential leaders, it's got a metro station, it's got art, it's got police which makes me very safe and people zipping in to deliver pizza. So far a cool spot, so funny. That's it for Istanbul, hopefully you guys enjoyed the video, we enjoyed exploring everything that Istanbul has to offer from its bazaars to its mosques to the amazing Turkish hospitality and the cats but we're off to our next destination which is Tel Aviv, Israel so make sure to check out that vlog when I've got that up so make sure to like and subscribe so you can get that notification. Alright guys, I'm gonna end it here and I'll see you in the next video.