My husband, Mike and I will be joining a small group of 10 on a photo tour to The Stans and our leader will be Mehmet Ozbalci, my trusty partner in the previous tours I organised to Turkey. Not many people are going to Turkey these days as too many of the wonderful locations we previously went to in the southeast of the country are off limits now due to the extensive Syrian refugee camps spread out across the plains. So a few years ago Mehmet extended his photo tours out to a few of the Stans.
To break up the 26 hours of traveling time to get there we decided to make a 2 day stop in exotic Istanbul (I only wish it were more time), before moving on to Uzbekistan. The old city of Istanbul (previously known as Constantinople) is easy to get around on foot, very much like the West End of Vancouver, with the waters of the Bosporus and the Golden Horn wrapped around the wonderful treasures within. Seeing the 550 year old Topkapi Palace with it's 86 carat pear-shaped diamond; the gold and emerald crusted dagger as well as a visit to the Harem, where the Sultan's wives and concubines lived, could keep you busy for a full day alone. Or should we explore the Blue Mosque, Aghia Sophia, the Underground Cistern, as well as the Grand Bazaar? However, a day in the Grand Bazaar, with 61 covered streets and over 4000 shops, would hardly get you anywhere. How can I show all this to Mike in only 2 days?
The following are a few images taken on previous trips to Turkey.
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| View of the Blue Mosque from my room |
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| Underground Cistern |
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A Native Villager who asked
to have her photo taken
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| Soaring over the Hoodoos in Cappadocia |
We'll be on our own in Tashkent, Uzbekistan for another 2 days before joining the official tour so hopefully we'll be over our jet lag by this time (they are 12 hours ahead of Vancouver). How we get around with all the signs in Cyrillic letters will be a different story! Stay tuned folks.
