adventure diary: days four and five

before i went on my trip, i painted a bunch of pages in a new moleskine journal. then each day i’d collect my tickets stubs, receipts and various little treasures and stick them into my travel journal and write about what i did that day. i really enjoyed this process of travel journaling. it helped me to absorb the many amazing experiences i was having.

now that i am back, it also helps me to remember the details of my trip more clearly. i am sharing those journal pages here, along with some of my photographs and stories of my adventures. you can find adventure diary day one here, adventure diary day two here and adventure diary day three here.

days four and five we ventured across the bosphorus into modern instanbul, and we started to explore the insides of the amazing buildings that surrounded us in old istanbul. day four we took the tram for the first time, across the bridge, over to taksim square.  this meant three transfers, from the tram to an underground subway that went up the steepest part of the hill, and then a streetcar – which we didn’t end up finding.  so we walked the last part of the way, which was completely delightful.

our plan was to walk all the way back from taksim square to old istanbul.  this is about a two hour walk, but we wandered off the path into the little alleys, and did some shopping, and drank some tea, and it took us most of the day to get there and back.

the road got narrower and more winding the closer we got to the harbour.  it was also a very steep.

we ventured off the path for a while and ended up in the “generators, motors and power tools” district.  block after block after block of small shops all selling the same things.  then we walked across the bridge.

this is the galata bridge and not the famous bosphorus bridge.  this bridge has the most amazing views, all around.

we went through the spice market again on the way back.  i did buy a kilo of turkish tea and some turkish delight.

it was evening by the time we got to the amazing blue mosque.  we arrived during prayer time and it was closed to visitors, so we hung around in the courtyard for a while.

inside the blue mosque is difficult to describe.  it is amazingly decorated and felt so incredibly peaceful.

outside of the blue mosque is a park.

and on the other side of the park, facing the blue mosque, is the hagia sofia.  the hagia sophia is so stunning i couldn’t even get a photo of the whole thing, but here is a small part of it.

on day five, we started the day by going inside the hagia sofia.

walking into the hagia sofia is really something else and i took tons of photos.  you can check my istanbul set on flickr if you want to see them all – it is a really spectacular building.

the walls had some huge amazing mosaics, this is my favourite one (later on, in cappadocia, i bought a small mirror with her face on the back)

and then we went back across the bridge to look for istanbul modern – a modern turkish art museum right on the bospherous.  on the way there we found a university:

and then we found istanbul modern.

the museum was amazing.  and the view from the restaurant in the museum spectacular!  i was happy to pay $10 for a latte to enjoy that view and i could have stayed there for days.  but this day turned foggy and i couldn’t get good photos of the view.

and that evening i got ready to leave istanbul for cairo.

andrea schroeder creates creativity workshops, downloadable creativity kits, art and guided meditations to support you in knowing and remembering that you are a creative being and you can create anything.

If you like this post, you may also like:

• adventure diary: day three
• adventure diary: day two
• adventure diary: egypt
• adventure diary: day one
• Taking that first step…

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Tagged as: adventure, istanbul, travel journal