Lamy in Turkey: Last night in Turkey.

Amy is graciously preparing a meal in our apartment which we have rented here in Istanbul for the last 5 nights. It's a great place. We are on the top floor of the Marti Apartment building in the Beyoglu district and our suite comes complete with kitchen and terrace. We have prepared most of our own meals, eaten breakfast on the terrace in the morning and it has provided us a great place to relax and rest after a day of sightseeing/drinking/shopping :).

The second day we were here we revisited Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque - even the second time around the sites still left our jaws on the floor.

The other night we attended a well renowned local jazz club called "Nardis", where we bore witness to the Onur Ataman Ensemble (Mark you would have loved it.....). Onur is a very accomplished jazz musician. He graduated from the Istanbul State Conservatory and was accepted to the Dutch Royal Conservatory jazz guitar faculty in 2001 and graduated with his masters degree in 2007. He was the first Turkish musician in the schools history. He later got his Phd at Leiden University in The Netherlands and Orpheus Institute in Ghent, Belgium. Let's just say the band was incredible....

Yesterday we visited the Ortakoy district and enjoyed a meal next to the Bosphorus bridge. Today we visited one of the more beautiful churches I have been to called the Chora Church, which is a Byzantine monument with almost all of its interior decoration dating from around 1312.

And tonight is our last night on the trip. Our flight leaves tomorrow morning at 6 am so Aims and I have decided to try and stay up all night in order to sleep on the plane and hopefully help our cause of avoiding terrible jet lag when we get home.

Coming back to Istanbul Aims and I are reminded as to why we love this city. It's a mecca of people and culture. The trip in general has been amazing yet again and we hope to return someday. I'll stop talking and post some pics. Thanks again everyone - we're looking forward to seeing you all back home.

Lamy

Dinner on the terrace. It was nice to be able to prepare our own meals (by that I mean Amy cooked). But Amy didn't have to worry about trying to translate Gluten and dairy sensitivity to the waiters.......

A shot of the street below our apartment. Just around the corner to the right was a small local grocery store where we bought our groceries and more importantly our wine!

Hagia Sofia.

Blue Mosque

Aims @ Nardis

Onur Ataman Ensemble

This is a Turkish game show that Amy and I got addicted to. It's called "Ben Bilmem Esim Bilir" which I think loosely translates to "I know my wife knows". Basically the one contestant from each couple determines how well their significant other will do in a contest consisting of such things as carrying tea around an obstacle field in a certain time, or how many hot peppers one can eat in 60 seconds...........quite entertaining especially after a bottle of wine or two!

Just one of the many contests. Ridiculousness is hilarious in any language......

On our way down to the Ortakoy district. We believe these flags (which are hung all over the city) are in celebration of Republic Day coming up on October 29th.