This beautiful view of the Bosporus bridge with a small mosque in the foreground is used for many Turkey travel posters. This view is from the town of Ortaköy on the outskirts of Istanbul on the European side of the bridge. This mosque caps a square filled with sidewalk cafes and restaurants and is one of the places where you can catch a boat for a cruise up the Bosporus. It is a popular spot for Turks, tourists and pigeons alike.

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One of the oddest sites in Istanbul is an underground cistern built by the Romans but not discovered by the Turks until after they had held the city for a hundred years. They started to wonder how some locals could fish from their basements and when they investigated they found this structure beneath the city near Hagia Sophia. In addition to the arches and the fish there are some remains from old pagan temples that were used in the bases of a couple of the columns. The one shown below is the head of Medusa. The cistern is the size of a cathedral and has 336 columns. It was pictured in both the 1963 James Bond film “From Russia with Love” and the 2009 film “The International” although its location was shown incorrectly in both films.

iExplore Turkey Experience

There was a lot of controversy around the construction of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul. It was not that people did not like the beauty of this mosque. The controversy was more about Sultan Ahmed himself. First, he had not won any great victories for Islam that would justify building such an opulent mosque. Second, he had the audacity to add 6 minarets (not shown). The number of minarets that a mosque had indicated the importance of the builder. And the only mosque in the world at the time with 6 minarets was the mosque in Mecca. Many called for him to knock down one of the offending towers. Instead the sultan solved the issue by adding a 7th minaret to the mosque in Mecca.

This beautiful mosque was clearly influenced by the design of Hagia Sophia which it faces. Its blue tile work has led it to be called the “blue mosque” by tourists.

iExplore Turkey Experience

This trolley in Istanbul runs the length of Istiklal Caddesi (street) which is a pedestrian street in BeyoÄŸlu. BeyoÄŸlu is an area of the city just north of the Golden Horn which is where the old European Embassies were located and therefore one of the most European parts of the old city. Now it is a place for high end shopping and endless people watching.

iExplore Turkey Experience

< !– google_ad_section_start –>One of the images that I often see on the tourism brochures for Istanbul and Turkey is this image of the town of Ortaköy at the base of the Bosphorus Bridge on the European side. This picturesque and relatively modern mosque is bright on the inside and the exterior makes a wonderful counterpoint to the bridge. The bridge reminds me a great deal of San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge, especially at night when they light it up with lights that change color. Around the pigeon-filled square are a number of cafes with outdoor seating. This picture is from a beautiful day in February and I can only imagine it is more lovely when the trees have not lost their leaves. Near Ortaköy you can catch a boat to cruise up the Bosphorus to the fortresses, one on the European side and one on the Asian side, built by Mehmed the Conquerer and his father in preparation for the successful siege of Istanbul in 1453.< !– google_ad_section_end –>

see video of Ortaköy at the end of Dolmabahçe Palace, Istanbul Turkey – Amateur Traveler Video Episode 16

Pikeo is yet another web 2.0 photo sharing site but this one s having a contest that will place the photos from four of their users on the cover of a new Lonely Planet Guide. The winners will also win a trip from Intrepid Travel. You can bet i will enter my photos from Istanbul, Barcelona, London and Paris.

Author of 100 Things to Do Before You Die, Doesn’t

Dave Freeman, the man behind the famous travel guide 100 Things to Do Before You Die, has died after hitting his head in a fall at his home. The 47-year-old writer passed away in his Venice home, said his father, Roy.

Airplane Crash in Madrid Kills 153

The budget airline Spanair has defended its decision to clear a passenger jet for take-off despite aborting an earlier attempt because of a technical problem.

One hundred and fifty-three people died in yesterday’s air crash at Madrid’s Barajas airport. Witnesses said the plane’s left-hand engine burst into flame as it lifted off the runway and the aircraft broke up and crashed back to earth in flames. Only 19 people survived the disaster.

FAA Software Glitch Delays Flights

The software program in Atlanta failed about 10 a.m. Pacific time. When that happened, a similar facility in Salt Lake City took over. But users continued to try to refile their flight plans, bogging down the system. At its worst, flight delays (mostly departures, but some arrivals) were as late as 90 minutes in some areas of the country. Hardest hit: Chicago (O’Hare and Midway), Baltimore/Washington International, Boston and Atlanta.

National Parks and “Sites” to be Featured on Quarters

On July 9, the US House of Representatives unanimously approved the America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008 (H.R. 6184). The proposed new commemorative coin series was inspired by, and unabashedly capitalizes on, the tremendous popularity of the 50 States Quarter® Program.

What about poor Delaware, which has no national park? Not to fear, folks. You see, the proposed legislation – a copy of which you can see at this site — doesn’t require a state to actually have a national park in order to qualify for an America’s Beautiful National Parks quarter dollar coin

Crete mayor has had enough of British drunks

The mayor of a Crete town has grown so exasperated with the rowdy, drunken behaviour of British tourists that he has demanded action from the British government.
“They scream, they sing, they fall down, they take their clothes off, they cross-dress, they vomit,” said Konstantinos Lagoudakis, the mayor of Malia, in an interview. “It’s only the British people – not the Germans or the French.”

Chinese Airline Official Sentenced to Death

No, it is not because of flight delays but because they have been found guilty of embezzlement that China has sentenced an official of China Southern Airlines Group to death.

United Airlines to charge up to $9 for snacks

While capital punishment might be overkill it might occur to some passengers of United Airlines when they find out how much the airline will be charging for snacks.

I stumbled across this video of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. This beautiful building that was built by the Eastern Roman empire had a great influence later on the style of the Imperial Ottoman mosques. If you have listened to the Amateur Traveler then you have already heard how much I loved my trip to Istanbul last year. One of the parts of the trip that I truly enjoyed was the visit to Hagia Sophia.

I expected a middle eastern city but found a much more European city with an incredible history (and wonderful food).

Check out:

• Istanbul on the Amateur Traveler
• My Istanbul pictures
• My Travel in 10 interview on Istanbul
• My episode on the Indie Travel Podcast on Istanbul

My video episodes on Istanbul:

• Video Episode 14 – Istanbul – St Saviour in Chora
• Video Episode 16 – Dolmabahçe Palace, Istanbul Turkey
• Video Episode 18 – Istanbul, Turkey – Wall to Wall Sites
• Video Episode 19 – Istanbul, Turkey – Hagia Sophia
• Video Episode 20 – Istanbul, Turkey – Topkap? Palace
• Video Episode 21 – Istanbul, Turkey – Bazaar and Bosphorus