Without a doubt, this one-of-a-kind experience had to be on my list of best travel moments of the year. For it was beyond anything I could have ever imagined I would experience during my young years.

Flying over Cappadocia's dreamy landscape in a hot air balloon was something I'll cherish forever. It was also the one thing I was saving up for during the entire trip. I'm sure that I can travel as far and as long as I want to, but what I saw in the historical region of Central Anatolia is quite unique and not to be found anywhere else in the world.

Perhaps a bit of history can help us understand why this surreal landscape is so special. Millions of years ago Asia Minor(now the center of Turkey) was still covered in water. Due to increasing fracturing process of the land that emerged, deep fissures and large depressed areas were created allowing magma to surface and create the Erciyes (the highest mountain of the region), Melendiz, Develi, Kegiboydoran and Hasan cones.

After many eruptions, these volcanoes grew in size and formed a volcanic chain that ran parallel to the Taurus mountains in southern Turkey. The geological activity and the action of rain, snow and wind changed the landscape of this region giving it its special and unusual appearance.

To sum it up, this wonder of nature located in the heart of Turkey is the result of millions of years of  intense volcanic activity and the action of natural forces.

Now to the best part of it. The fantastic rock formations of this region have become a very popular spot for hot air ballooning. In fact, I was truly impressed to see how well organised tourism here is and how the locals are getting used to see people from all over the world.

As a funny anecdote, each and every single time we said we came from Panama, everyone mentioned we were the first Panamanians that they met in their lives.

The day we booked our hot air balloon flight we had to wake up really early, because part of the experience is watching the sunrise over Cappadocia. A transfer is arranged by the balloon company to pick you up at your hostel/hotel at 5 am. Selami, the guy at the reception of the hostel, helped us out by knocking on our door before 5.

You're taken to the take-off spot and you're offered tea and coffee and some snacks before the flight. Security measures are explained, while joy and excitement are in the air. You can feel it everywhere, your head is somewhere else. I just wanted to hop in that basket, as the darkness of the night slowly vanished and made way  to the first light of day.

 Finally, the wait was over. From one moment to the next, I was up in the air and felt so free, so at peace and unbelievably happy to be alive! Just looking at the impressive rock formations from above, the orchards, the pigeon houses, the vineyards and the other balloons which rise up in a feast of colors, as garlands decorating the surrounding beige-colored valleys and mountains.

One thing was clear in my head during the balloon flight: the world we're living in is so spectacular that no combination of words put together to honor its beauty could explain how wonderful it is.
It was a rush of blood to the head that left me breathless.

The Uçhisar castle  as seen from the hot air balloon.

 Fatih, the balloon pilot, was explaining some facts about the region when he interrupted himself and told us to look at our right, as the sun was rising over the snow-covered mount Erciyes.

"Good morning people. We're happy to welcome you here in Cappadocia".

It was without a doubt one of the most amazing moments of the trip.

Uçhisar castle.

Flying over the surreal landscape of Cappadocia.

With Fatih, the balloon pilot.

I wish you have enjoyed this list as much as I did. I loved every single moment and describing them hasn't been all that easy.

Moments like these renew my image of the world, giving me the chance to see it as a place that's not hostile nor desolated. We live in a wonderful world with wonderful people and so much to be discovered. As in my favorite Foals song, I truly believe we fly balloons on a fuel called love.

Happy New Year!Frohes Neues! Feliz Año Nuevo!

Astrid.

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The funniest and most memorable situations happen mostly thanks to coincidences. As what occured to me on the next best travel moment of this list.

#2 goes to meeting Mr. Ramazan at the Valide Sultan Hotel in Istanbul's Historic Peninsula. To explain you how this happened, I must go back to when I asked Altuğ (the hostel owner) about places where I could see the most splendid views of Ayasofya and the Blue Mosque.

I told him I had heard and read about pictures taken from the rooftops of the Grand Bazaar with lovely views of the minarets and domes of Nuruosmaniye mosque, but he quickly suggested I should visit an old friend whom he met while working in a hotel in Sultanahmet. He wrote down the name of the place and the name of his friend on my map and told me I should definitely pay a visit to him.

It was almost 4 o'clock and we had already seen so much during that day: we spent the whole morning exploring Çukurcuma, then we went to Galata, and last but not least, the Cistern Basilica in Sultanahmet, close to Ayasofya and the Blue Mosque.

Since we were already in the neighbourhood, I started looking for the hotel without even knowing the exact address.

After 20 minutes of walking around, we finally found the Valide Sultan right where Altuğ said it would be. The wooden edifice was strategically located on a corner with impressive views of the Bosphorus and Ayasofya, and I supposed it was very visited because of its location within Istanbul's most touristic area.

When we entered the lobby, there was just a boy at the reception who didn't seem to notice us, the new guests in the house. He kept doing his thing without raising his sight, so we immediately took the lift after saying Merhaba.

The restaurant on the last floor was deserted: no one was at the bar and there was no waiter to be seen. But the minute I walked out and saw the view from the balcony, I knew I wanted to stay. We waited for someone to come. However, no one appeared. So we stood up and decided to leave the hotel. We were actually so thirsty that we didn't want to wait for a long time.

On our way to the stairs, an old man came out of nowhere and took the lift with us. He seemed very busy and was carrying a kitchen cloth on one of his shoulders. The three of us entered the lift and I don't know how or why, but the following just happened.
"Are you by any chance Mr. Ramazan?", I asked.
He smiled and seemed very surprised.
"Yes, that's me. How do you know me?".
"We have a friend in common", I said.

We sat at a table on the terrace of the ground floor with him. He took care of our thirst by serving us  turkish coffee and tea. We also got to say hi to the hotel owners, who were sitting at the table next to ours.

During our conversation, I told him about how I wanted to come to the hotel and take some pictures of Ayasofya. Ramazan immediately took our cups upstairs to the restaurant and he again sat down with us and we engaged in a nice conversation with the best of views.

Turkish coffee with the best view ever!

 After several cups of coffee and tea, he told us about his origins and the reason why he decided to come to Istanbul. Born in a town on the Black Sea, he came to this city to make more money for his son. He also confessed that he was longing to go back to his hometown.

I wanted to give him something for the coffee and the tea, but he refused to take it.

It is during these moments that you learn more about a city and its people, rather than reading it somewhere.

In his wrinkled and peaceful face, I saw the face of men and women who have left their homes in order to improve their living conditions. But I also saw in his eyes that no matter where you go, you always take the love for your home and your family in your heart.

 It wasn't the view at all, it was his company what made this moment so unforgettable...

Ramazan and me.

The countdown is almost over! Check out SpiegelEye travel blog tomorrow for the best travel moment of this year!

Astrid.

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To me, travelling is really life-changing when it teaches you about the world. To travel and not to learn about the diversity and problems that affect the world, is to not have travelled at all.

This is why  #3 on my list of best travel moments of 2014 goes to when I shared my orange juice with a Syrian refugee whom I met on the Galata bridge.

Short after arriving from the Bosphorus tour on a vapur (ferry) and discovering the strait from tip to tip, because it takes you from Eminönü to Anadolu Kavağı, a small town located near the mouth of the Black Sea, we decided to hang around in the neighbourhood and take a look at the Yeni Camii, the New Mosque, located right next to where you board the cruises.

I was quite thirsty, so I went for an orange juice.. I asked the street vendor for a portakal suyu, from the basic turkish I learned online and with a booklet before the trip. The moment I turned my head to take a look at the Galata bridge, I saw a little smiling face hiding behind the stairs through the ones you access the bridge.

I quickly took my camera and photographed the boy, who soon realised what I was doing. He ran down the stairs and playfully approached me while waving his little hands. The first things I noticed where his incredibly radiant smile and the fact that he was barefoot. Kutsi, the taxi driver who took us from the airport to the hotel, had already pointed out that the streets of the city were full of Syrian refugees, that represent a problem in the biggest turkish cities like Ankara and Istanbul.

I tried to utter a couple of words, but the only thing I was able to do when he looked at me in the eyes, was give him the orange juice and my half-empty bottle of water. His eyes lit up in a such a thankful way that I felt he hugged me without even touching me.

In his innocence, this kid was able to rejoice at a simple gesture. I could realise the magnitude of the problem that Syrian refugees go through not only in Turkey, but in all the other countries they've fled to because of the ongoing civil war in their country, the growing threat of ISIS and the violence.

I'll never forget this moment. Even those who are having a bad time and have no certainty of where they'll be tomorrow, can teach you to smile.
Smile so hard that no sorrow or problem can erase the joy and hope from your face.

When I first saw the Pyramids from the desert, I literally skipped a heartbeat. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. It is by far one of the most fantastic sights I've been lucky to see in my life. You really go through so much internally when you look at them from a distance and when you finally stand in front of them you just can't believe how huge they are.

In fact, I went through several states of mind during that day: from amazement to wonder, as you ask yourself how on Earth was it possible to built such monuments.

 Then, you feel like an explorer. As if you were the first person to touch those huge stones and to walk the narrow corridors of the Great Pyramid.

---

As we had already done some exploring inside the Great Pyramid, we sat on camels and headed towards the Sphinx. The sun seemed to bring light to every corner of that empty space, crowned with three huge Pyramids that have withstood sandstorms, the passing of time and the changes that Humanity has gone through since they were built.

While I was so concentrated on the animal and the temples that were on each side of the path, I quickly realised that if I didn't raise my eyes in that very moment, I would miss the best part of it.

So I looked to my right and there they were. Three  of them, everything in silence, no one around. It was as if the whole world had stopped. I imagined how the construction must have been, how hard the work was, but surprisingly I couldn't find any matching sounds to those images.

That's was funny about the Pyramids. I can't think of a place that's more magical and that still represents the subject of so many discussions and debates and has such different meanings in the hearts and minds of people all over the world.

Nevertheless, I can ensure you that there's not a place in this world where silence is so precious as here. The light and tranquility are startling. Your chest will burst.  And you'll always want to go back to that moment when you were on a camel's back gazing at the Pyramids...

The Pyramids of Giza, Egypt.

The Sphinx and the desert.

Astrid.

Keep reading as tomorrow I'll share with you the #3 best travel moment of this year.

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2015 is right around the corner, therefore I would love to share with you my 5 favorite travel moments of this year!

First and foremost, I'd love to state that every single moment spent at airports, train stations, tram or bus stops and walking streets, bazaars, fresh fruit markets and travelling in general, has been special and crucial for my learning of life. There are so many enriching experiences in life and to travel is definitely one of them.

The moments on this list correspond to the order in which they happened. Let's get started!

#5: Peeling potatoes and the joy of spring in Giebelstadt, Germany

If you've read my previous posts, then you know that my family in Germany lives in northern Bavaria, specifically in the town Giebelstadt, about 20 kms from Wurzburg, the biggest city in that region.

Due to the fact that I live in Panama, travelling to visit my family was always a necessity and arriving to this town is always a reason to rejoice.
But this time in particular, travelling to Germany was twice as special. We were travelling in May to spend my grandma's birthday together. This was something new, since we always travelled for Christmas, the time in which school is out in Panama and vacations are three months long.

I decided to present all my university projects and do my finals before the semester was even over to be able to travel before my parents and brother, by the end of April.

Arriving was pure bliss. The hectic of city life soon disappeared of my mind and I adapted to town life.

My first day in Germany was an ode to the love of spring: I helped cooking lunch for the family by peeling potatoes and other small chores that we would normally avoid during vacations. But that's exactly what I was looking for: I placed the rocker outside on the terrace and sat down with a bowl of unpeeled potatoes while I soaked up some sun.

After that, I played with my little cousins in the garden. We sat down at my aunt's little pond and enjoyed feeding her Koi fishes and posed for some really crazy pictures taken with my camera. My day was finally over with a visit to Wurzburg.
The whole landscape and the city came to life with different shades of vibrant green, people sitting at cafés and terraces with their Aperol Spritz or Steinwein and just the joy of the new season and the new memories about to be made.

Clara, Tobias and me playing in our grandma's garden.

Fresh strawberries from Essfeld! So good.

There's nothing more sublime than enjoying the simplicity of life. Even if you're travelling, taking time, looking up at the sky and walking around with no hurries are perfect ways of perceiving the place you're at.
Next on SpiegelEye, #4 on my list of best travel moments of 2014!!!

Have a nice weekend,
Astrid

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So, it's that time of the year again.
When I look back and think about 2014, I feel happy. This year has seen some ups and downs and also a lot of goals accomplished. But let us start the countdown for 2015 in another way.

As a little girl I used to enjoy Christmas more than any other time of the year. This Christmas spirit is one of the things I hope I never lose, so I'll have to interrupt my Istanbul & Turkey travel diary to write a few words about my favorite time of the year.

 Last night I was reading a wonderful short story written by Czech journalist and writer Zdeněk Karel Slabý. "About a little man who made the Prague Clock Tower stop" tells the story of the little man who falls in love with a porcelain doll, only to find out that it was impossible for them to be together, since the store owner where the doll was on display also had feelings for it and wanted to keep it for himself.

 The story goes on telling the struggles that the little man suffers in order to be with his loved one. Among them, the fact that he was really small and everyone ignored him and his problems. On a desperate attempt to get some advice, he opened his umbrella during Christmas day and got carried away by the cold breeze, until he landed inside the Prague Astronomical Clock, mounted on the wall of the Old City Hall in the Old Town Square.

He received some advice of the 12 Apostles, who stopped the clockwork hourly show that every inhabitant of this city knows so well.
The Apostles remained hours and hours giving the little man advice, while people waited impatiently for the next show. Some even wondered if there was something wrong with the beloved clock, a symbol of the city.

One of my favorite Christmas postcards: the Old Town Square of Prague with the Týn church.

 Long story short, the little man was told that if he desired with all his heart that the doll came to him, a Christmas miracle would happen.

I hate to ruin you the end of this story, but it helps me to explain the point of what I'm trying to say here. In the end, the little man and the porcelain doll are reunited, because of the strong desire of the puppet to be with him.

The thing is, sometimes we focus so much on problems  that divert our attention to the real Christmas miracles happening all around us the whole year round. Sure, this time of the year is special, but if we desire to see the  world with a much more positive approach, I think we would see the special and blissful events of our cotidianity.

 As for example what happened to me yesterday.

I took the bus to meet my mother after work in one of Panama City's huge shopping malls. You should know that this time of the year is huge for Panamanians, who love to do their holiday shopping during almost the entire month!
To sum it up, the city was chaos: traffic jams everywhere, upset drivers honking non-stop and the faces of the people inside the bus were also a bit worried and troubled.

Near the bus station of Cinco de Mayo, a young guy hopped in the bus carrying nothing but a guitar. Smiling and raising a little bit his voice he said he wanted to play music that he learned  during his travels all over Latinamerica. And that's what he did. He started playing a joropo, a kind of music that is typical in the southern Llanos region of Venezuela.

He carried on with his repertoire and I noticed how the faces inside the bus changed as we were approaching the mall. The message that his guy, who by the way was travelling from Argentina, was trying to give us, was that yes, there is so much to be worried about, but when you have music and when you can be happy for the moment and enjoy the company of the people you're with, then nothing's really that bad.

Argentinian guy singing inside a MetroBus in Panama City.

 I was smiling from ear to ear by the time I got off the bus. Smiles are truly contagious, since my mom started smiling the moment I told her about this guy.

This is how I perceive Christmas: a journey to the heart.
This one journey lasts for a lifetime and it is perhaps the most joyful and difficult one we will undertake. But if there's one thing I'm sure of, is that there's no better one.



I wish you a safe trip to your heart!
Merry Christmas!

Astrid.

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The greyish colors of the sunset quickly changed the images I was perceiving on my first night out in Istanbul; from a lively, bustling and colorful city, I started to see a still lively, but much more melancholic side of the city.

These first impressions would stick with me during the entire journey, shaping my image of Istanbul and its inhabitants. Don't know how or why, but the ambiance here stretches from vibrant and energetic to lonely and gloomy in a blink of an eye. However, both atmospheres that coexist here were so incredibly comforting to me.

A row of wooden houses in pastel colors were blocking the last sunbeams from the dark side street we were walking down. To one side of the path, improvised art galleries in empty storehouses, soft wood falling apart and turkish flags hanging side to side with portraits of young girls in Ottoman-style costumes and cats. To the other, our salvation.

We were so hungry that we sat down at the Gülhane Sur Café, the first restaurant we saw during that stroll close to the grounds of Topkapi Palace. The place presented itself as really creative: it wasn't a common restaurant with tables put together in a regular layout. It was a 
staggered set of benches arranged in a very quaint way, adorned with turkish-style lamps.


We sat down in one of the benches and the waiter immediately came to us with the menu. We decided to order a water pipe (or hookah) with our meal and before we even got to order, the young  guy told us they only had one item of the list. So we had Gözleme, which is a savoury traditional turkish pastry dish filled with various toppings.

After we ate our cheese Gözleme, my brother and me smoked from the water pipe in an endless conversation about arts, our lives and the city we were at.
 We then realised it was getting darker and we still had to find our way back to Cihangir, on the other side of the European part of Istanbul.

Gülhane Sur Café

So we headed to the Gülhane tram station and waited for the next car that would take us to Findikli, from where we would take the funicular to Taksim square. Except for the fact that the tram stopped at  Eminönü station with no explanation at all.

This will be the subject of another post, but I woud like to finish this entry with the last photo I took from the tram station. This image not only represents a moment I spent in a neighbourhood,it transmits the ambiance of the city during nightfall.

It's part of this double identity that I can't put into words, but that works on such a magical way that is somewhat hard to explain. It's how Ahmet Rasim once wrote: "The beauty of a landscape resides in its melancholy". I haven't found a better way to describe what I felt when I saw the neon lights mirrored in the almost empty cobblestone streets of Gülhane.

Nightfall in Gülhane

Astrid.

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During my first day in Istanbul, the last stop in Sultanahmet was the Topkapi Sarayi or Topkapi Palace, a place you could easily spend a whole day exploring without even having seen the half of it.

Topkapi Sarayi is in fact a city in miniature. Probably one of the best examples of Ottoman architecture, it was built by the order of Mehmed the Conqueror short after his army took Constantinople on 29 May 1453.

You can imagine the importance when you take in consideration that during the Empire's best moment, Topkapi Palace was home to as much as 4,000 people!

With mosques, hospitals and even bakeries, Topkapi Sarayi was the official residence of the Ottoman Sultans for more than 400 years until the year 1853, when Sultan Abdulmecit transferred the administrative center of the Empire to the modern Dolmabahçe Palace, on the European coastline of the Bosphorus in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul.

Topkapi Palace is located on a hill with magnificent views of the Marmara Sea, the Bosphorus strait and the Golden Horn. It consists on a complex layout of buildings connected by courtyards and gardens.

The Gate of  Salutation, entrance to the second courtyard, from which the empire was ruled.

The Second Courtyard

The Bosphorus.

Upper terrace and fountain inside the Fourth Courtyard, which was a private sanctuary for the Sultan and his family, consisting of several kiosks, gardens and pavilions.

Part of the Fourth Courtyard.

I just can't get over these views of the Galata Tower on the European side of Istanbul.

The incredible details all over the palace caught my attention to the point I imagined how life was as a part of the Ottoman court.

Topkapi Palace also includes fine examples of Islamic calligraphy, Ottoman treasures and jewelry, robes, weapons and even holy relics of the Muslim World.

Now to my favorite part.

Far from being a space of total depravity and lust, the Harem was the part of the Palace where the Sultan's wives and concubines lived. Built by Suleiman the Magnificent, the Harem comprises a mosque, baths, a school and a pool, and it is said that more than a thousand women occupied its more than 400 private rooms.

Details of fountains inside the Harem. I absolutely adore Iznik tiles.

The Harem.

Loving the blue shades of Iznik tiles.

View of the Courtyard of the Favourites inside the Harem.

Looking outside this window of the Harem, I thought about how different must the view have been during the times these rooms were inhabited.

If your desire is to really see all of the palace, my advice is to dedicate an entire day to its exploration. If you just want to have an impression of Topkapi, a couple of hours should be enough.

I surely believe there's so much to see here and a visit to its hundreds of rooms and beautiful gardens is an obligatory stop if you're in Istanbul.

Astrid.


Keep reading! More of my first day in Istanbul coming up tomorrow!
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Probably the most well-known mosque in Istanbul, just the sight of it made me slow down my pace. It was prayer time and I felt that with every step I took I matched the sounds coming out of the loudspeakers calling the faithful to come.

The court of the Blue Mosque

Also called Sultanahmet mosque, it gives the name to the neighbourhood. Built by one of genius architect Mimar Sinan's disciples, Sedefhar Mehmet Ağa, its design is clearly influenced by the Byzantine elements of the nearby Ayasofya. In fact, they are practically in front of each other, separated by a large and well-kept park with flowers and fountains.


From the exterior, the most important feature of the Blue Mosque is the fact that it has 6 minarets, being the only mosque in Istanbul with this characteristic. It was actually a controversy during the time it was built, because it equaled the Sacred Mosque of Mecca, the holiest site of Islam.

As a response to the controversy caused, Sultan Ahmet  told his architect to add another minaret to the one in Mecca.

My brother and me in the courtyard of the Blue Mosque

The name Blue Mosque comes from the fact that the interior is adorned by more than 20,000 handmade Iznik ceramic tiles in more than 50 different tulip, flower and fruit patterns, which shine thanks to the light coming inside the building from the 260 windows decorated with complex designs.

Interior of the Blue Mosque

Now a little anecdote from when we visited the Blue Mosque.

We actually weren't allowed to go inside the mosque, because we got there by the time of the third prayer of the day. After taking some pictures of the courtyard, we decided to follow the advice of one of the mosque's volunteers, who told us about a presentation about Islam and Islamic architecture in one of the rooms of the mosque.

We were offered tea, coffee and cookies before the volunteers began explaining about the religion and the architecture of the building, a presentation which helped me understand the grandeur and the purpose of the construction of imperial mosques. The guy also gave each one of us a free copy of the Quran. I had enough space in my bag for one and my brother had to carry his one.

He was pretty upset and insisted several times that I make some space in my bag so he wouldn't hold his Quran in the hand. After saying no over and over again, he stopped insisting.
By the time we returned to the mosque prayer time was over. I was told to put a scarf over my head and since I had nothing, they gave me a piece of blue cloth. But when the mosques' guards saw my brother carrying the Quran, they showed so much respect and even lowered their heads as he was taking off his shoes. They wanted to shake his hand and smiled uninterruptedly. They treated him with high reverence. I was blown away and started laughing to myself.
He was a rock star. A Quran rock star without even wanting it. 

Some people have stolen the Iznik tiles from the mosque.

The interior of the Blue Mosque was simply out of this world. So delicate, so harmonious, so unbelievably perfect. It's almost as if these buildings are erected to be a haven of peace where you take all the energy you need to go on.

The Egyptian obelisk in the Hippodrome, right next to Sultanahmet mosque.

Daily life scene from the Hippodrome in Sultanahmet.

Keep reading SpiegelEye travel blog for more of my Istanbul & Turkey travel diary. Also coming up, my top 5 travel moments of this year! You can't miss it!!!!

Cheers,
Astrid

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Following my conversation with Altug (the hostel owner) the night before, I decided to first explore Sultanahmet, the part of town where you'll find the main tourist attractions or major sights of the city.

I also wanted to see other parts of town, but Altug told me that once in Istanbul, you really have to visit Ayasofya and the Topkapi Palace, both located in the historic peninsula on the European side.
So we headed to Taksim square, which was only a ten minutes walk from our hostel in Cihangir, and had breakfast at the square, while looking at the Ataturk monument.

We had Simit, which is a circular bread typically encrusted with sesame seeds, often regarded as the turkish bagel. I loved simit; just one was enough to give me all the energy I needed for the first half of the day. Simit is sold by street vendors who either have a trolley or carry the simit in a tray.

A simit trolley at Taksim square.

After our breakfast at Taksim square, we took the funicular from Taksim to Findikli, the hazelnut station. I call it the hazelnut station because Findikli is the turkish word for this kind of nut. I learned that when I went to the grocery store and read the label on a candy bar. From Findikli we took the tram to Sultanahmet.

 The public transportation system works really well. It's impressive how easily you can go from one place to another within a couple of minutes in such a huge city. Where I live (Panama City, Panama), it's so complicated to move around and the public transportation system is horrible. So, it was a nice change for the routine.A tram Jeton (token) can be obtained at the stop and it's not expensive, with one jeton costing 2 TRY (Turkish lira), which is approx. 1 USD.  

The first picture I took from the Blue Mosque or Sultanahmet Camii (turkish word for mosque).

The sequence of views of the city during that first tram ride is unforgettable to me. Going out of Findikli station to see the Bosphorus and the Asian side from where we were standing, while we waited for the next tram that would take us to the historic peninsula; the first views of the Galata bridge and the Yeni Camii (New mosque) through Eminönü and skipping a heartbeat while seeing the minarets of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque from the car, and all with the distinctive bell ringing sound of the tram in Istanbul when you arrive to the next stop.

Hagia Sophia is enourmous and sparsely decorated on the outside, but it sure is something special. It is said that this building changed the history of architecture. I'm not a savant of the topic, but I surely have never see anything like it in my life.

Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya in Turkish) is perhaps the most important landmark in Istanbul and it's history also tells the history of the city.
The current building's construction began between the years 532 and 537 and was commanded by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian. It was the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years until the Seville Cathedral was completed, in 1520.

After the Ottoman turks conquered Constantinople under Sultan Mehmed II, the church was turned into an imperial mosque and four minarets were added to the structure. 500 years later, Ataturk, the founder of the turkish republic, turned it into a museum and so it remains until our days. The entrance fee is 30 TRY, about 14 USD.

In Ayasofya you'll se fine examples of Byzantine mosaics. This one for example represents Christ Pantocrator, one of the most widely used religious images of Orthodox Christianity.

Ayasofya, with its massive dome, is considered to be the epitome of Byzantine architecture.

The Mihrab (which shows the direction in which muslims have to pray) and the minbar (the pulpit where the imam delivers sermons) are beautifully decorated.

Every detail in Hagia Sophia is simply sublime. There's just so much richness everywhere, it's a true feast for the eyes.

Ayasofya was undergoing renovation during our visit.

My brother and me inside Ayasofya.

The medallions show the arabic words for Allah (on the right), the Prophet Muhammad and the first four caliphs.

My marvelled face inside Hagia Sophia.

One perspective of the massive dome and one of the chandeliers.

Ayasofya is just breathtaking.

I was impressed the minute I entered Hagia Sophia. My neck kept turning with the sights of the pendant chandeliers, the medallions, both the christian and muslim details inside the edifice, the mosaics and the collection of calligraphy as a part of the exhibition.

Ayasofya is always crowded, but it wasn't an impediment to stop and stare at the marvelous wonder of architecture that this place is.
 It's not only a reason for turks to feel proud about, but of the entire humanity, because there's such a unique mixture of elements from the Byzantine and Ottoman times that is nowhere to be seen, but here.

Another depiction of Christ Pantocrator in the upper gallery of Ayasofya.

A depiction of Virgin Mary. The two images that are right next to her represent people that donated money for the construction of the church.

Exploring the upper gallery, I peered on an opened window and saw a different perspective of the Blue Mosque. The result was this picture.

Happy self- portrait inside Ayasofya.

On my next post, I'll continue writing about my first day in Istanbul, as a part of my Istanbul travel diary.
Keep reading!

Astrid

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