Greetings From Istanbul
Hello to all!
It was a very short flight of about an hour from Sofia to Istanbul. It has been such stress free trip so far especially given the number of airports, flights, connections, etc. We had our first near miscue when my luggage did not arrive at the baggage claim in Istanbul. A very helpful gentleman from the airport checked the other carousels and found it amidst the baggage from a flight from Moscow. Somehow it had gotten unloaded onto the wrong carousel. Normalcy restored we moved on to our hotel!
Istanbul is currently the 15th largest city in the world and one of the fastest growing countries in the world. It is the only major city that exists on two different continents; there is a European side and an Asian side separated by the beautiful Bosphorus River. It actually serves as more of a strait as ships can come and go from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Our hotel is in a super location as we can see all of this from our room (I will include a picture at the bottom). We are also located next door to a subway station and just a 10 minute walk to the famous Grand Bazaar (4,500 shops in this maize of shops, streets, etc.).
Today we took a walking tour of the city and saw most of the "major" sites - The Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia (one of only two houses of worship in the world that have been both a Christian church and a mosque). We also took our first foray into the Grand Bazaar today and bought some spices. We do plan to go back for a more extensive shopping trip early next week. We had our first "so-so" tour guide so it was not the most exhilarating day.
Tomorrow we will go to an English mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, which is one of the churches that was significant during Monsignor Roncalli's time in Istanbul. It is here that we will meet on Monday with representatives from the Apostolic Nuncio's office. We are very excited about our visit and hope it is as blessed as our time was in Sophia with Bogdan.
The World Cup is front and center these days in most of the world. We have enjoyed watching the games in all of the different countries in which we have been. These folks love their "futbol."
More pictures from today available on Jane's Facebook page..
https://www.facebook.com/jane.weisenbach
God bless and see you tomorrow with some pictures of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit!
It was a very short flight of about an hour from Sofia to Istanbul. It has been such stress free trip so far especially given the number of airports, flights, connections, etc. We had our first near miscue when my luggage did not arrive at the baggage claim in Istanbul. A very helpful gentleman from the airport checked the other carousels and found it amidst the baggage from a flight from Moscow. Somehow it had gotten unloaded onto the wrong carousel. Normalcy restored we moved on to our hotel!
Istanbul is currently the 15th largest city in the world and one of the fastest growing countries in the world. It is the only major city that exists on two different continents; there is a European side and an Asian side separated by the beautiful Bosphorus River. It actually serves as more of a strait as ships can come and go from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Our hotel is in a super location as we can see all of this from our room (I will include a picture at the bottom). We are also located next door to a subway station and just a 10 minute walk to the famous Grand Bazaar (4,500 shops in this maize of shops, streets, etc.).
Today we took a walking tour of the city and saw most of the "major" sites - The Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia (one of only two houses of worship in the world that have been both a Christian church and a mosque). We also took our first foray into the Grand Bazaar today and bought some spices. We do plan to go back for a more extensive shopping trip early next week. We had our first "so-so" tour guide so it was not the most exhilarating day.
Tomorrow we will go to an English mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, which is one of the churches that was significant during Monsignor Roncalli's time in Istanbul. It is here that we will meet on Monday with representatives from the Apostolic Nuncio's office. We are very excited about our visit and hope it is as blessed as our time was in Sophia with Bogdan.
The World Cup is front and center these days in most of the world. We have enjoyed watching the games in all of the different countries in which we have been. These folks love their "futbol."
More pictures from today available on Jane's Facebook page..
https://www.facebook.com/jane.weisenbach
God bless and see you tomorrow with some pictures of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit!
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