Istanbul

“Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it’s Istanbul not Constantinople
Been a long time gone
Old Constantinople’s still has Turkish delight
On a moonlight night”

Those are the words to my niece Sofia’s favorite song, at least it was her favorite song this summer when I visited home. I kept thinking of that song the whole time I was in Istanbul looking at beautiful buildings like the Ayasofya (aka-hagia sophia).

I also couldn’t get enough Turkish delight while I was there. In fact I am wishing that I had brought more home with me.  Now I understand why Edmund just HAD to get more.

I won’t bore you too much with details, I just want to show you pictures and say that I was truly blessed to be able to spend some time in the gorgeous city of Istanbul. To wake up to the grand site of the Blue Mosque. This was the view from our hotel balcony our first morning in Istanbul.

We spent the first day walking around and just taking in the beauty of this historical city.

There were Roasted Chestnuts everywhere.

We also did a little shopping 

The lamps were my favorite.

I just couldn’t stop taking photos of them.

The afternoon of our first day we were whisked away on a bus to another hotel for the conference, far away from the old city, but right on the water. We had a great view the whole time and were blessed to walk along the shore and collect seashells during our free time.

There were many special things about this conference. But I will share about those things for my newsletter for security purposes. If you don’t get our newsletters email me and I can put you on our list 

We had a free day on Saturday and were able to return to the old city again. The girls mostly wanted to go shopping. But we also made a stop at one of my favorite places in the world.

Here are a few more pictures from that day.

After the conference concluded we went back to the city one last time and this time we got to experience the night life in Istanbul.

The sites were even more breathtaking at night time.

And the city just seemed that much more enchanting

After walking around for a little while we went to dinner.

The last day we just walked around a little bit more and went on a little cruise.

Before I knew it I was back home with Curtis. Just thinking back on all of the special memories and solid relationships that were built during my time in Istanbul.