I first visited Istanbul in 1989. I went back in October, 2011 with my husband and our friend Eric. In the interim, I grew up a little bit, and the city grew up a lot. It’s clean, cosmopolitan and still has the most killer skyline I’ve ever seen.
Photo credit for some of these photos goes to our friend and travel partner, Eric Eckard.
Jo VonBargen says
Oh, my, girlfriend. These photos are unbelievably delicious! Brava, my friend! More, more!
Mary Kathryn Johnson says
WOW! Beautiful and insightful. Thanks for the armchair education.
Autum says
The photos and captions are magnificent! “Istanbul at night” is breathtaking.
Laura Zera says
Thanks! Credit for that one goes to our friend Eric. His pics are all the really nice ones.
Jack Durish says
Did you buy those photos or take them. Beautiful! I’ve had flavored charcoal on a hookah but have no idea what Greeps might be…
Laura Zera says
I took some and our friend Eric took the nicer ones. My husband has some truly fantastic shots as he’s a professional photographer, but I can’t afford to buy the license to post them here — LOL! You can see some here, though: http://www.zeraphoto.com/gallery/places/
Greeps is their version of grape!
Caleb Pirtle says
The photographs are stunning. It is a visual trip that I’m glad I took.
Laura Zera says
Thanks, everybody, for all the love!
Christina Carson says
When you said you were going traveling, I never guessed Istanbul. How exotic. Thank you and Eric for the lovely armchair tour.
Laura Zera says
Glad you liked it. That was Oct., and we still have another trip in the queue: Turks and Caicos Islands in a couple of days! Those photos will look considerably different — probably just a lot of snorkeling pics. 🙂
Christina Carson says
I suppose you remember when those two islands asked to become part of Canada.The Canadian government refused, I think because they represented off shore banking centers for certain Canadians. At first I thought, “Imagine a tropical part of Canada.” But a friend suggested all those Canadians there in the winter might sink the wee things.
Laura Zera says
I actually didn’t know about this until reading up on the islands as we were about to book the trip. I expect to encounter a lot of Canadians there that have never left… .
Christina Carson says
Well it’s either the wise ones or the woozies, either way they’ve found a fine climate to live in.
Jodi Lobozzo Aman says
Beautiful! Now I want to go!
Dimple says
Awesome pictures…I so badly want to go to Istanbul now
Sandra says
Thanks for sharing the beautiful pics- some of the architechture resemble hookah pipes! I wondered what Greeps was! 🙂
Joshen Reborn says
When I saw Istanbul at night I let out a “whoa”. Such an awesome shot. Seems like you had a good time, maybe I’ll add it to my list of places to visit.
Claude Nougat says
Love your pixes AND the comments! I’ve always wanted to go to Istanbul and now I can’t wait to go…
Laura Zera says
Definitely. For you and Joshen and Jodi and Dimple who are all thinking about going, you deeeeefinitely should do it. It’s a special place.
David L Atkinson says
The photographs are great Laura. I finally got it Greeps = Grapes how slow am I! The furry things with the eye – I have an eye fridge magnet and bought it in Turkey. I was told that it was a Turkish symbol for good luck!