Emine Sultan Hotel Istanbul

... taking advantage of the nice weather.  Our hotel for the next 2 nights is the Tashkonak, which is only a block away from the Emine Sultan where we had stayed previously.  We are given a large room with 2 twin beds and a queen size bed, which ...

... breakfast on the terrace we get an early start. So far, we have seen the major highlights that we wanted to see in Istanbul, except one.  Our goal today, the Topkapi Palace, which was the official and primary residence in the city of the Ottoman ...

... the rest of the afternoon off and relax.  We spend the rest of this day on the roof top terrace of the hotel, writing, reading and looking out over the Bosporus.    Tomorrow we leave Istanbul and fly to Cappadocia. ...

... prayer.  (starting at 5 AM in the morning as we discover)   We check into the charming old wooden guest house, the Emine Sultan and are greeted by the warm and friendly staff.  Since the room is not ready yet, we drop our bags and ...

... of the women we see walking are not wearing a head covering.  We have noticed the same manner of dress in other parts of Istanbul.  Although the country and maybe the city as well is 99% Muslim, one half or less of the women wear a head ...

May 13th   29th installment    Another beautiful day dawns in Istanbul.  The muezzin of the morning call to prayer needs to check his watch, or perhaps he is intentionally cruel and gives us his wake-up call at 4:40 ...

... resemblance to San Francisco, complete with the long suspension bridge that connects the European side with the Asian side of Istanbul.  There are older sections of the city where the streets are crooked and narrow and more modern areas where they ...