Istanbul - Day 4

Our forth day in Istanbul felt like such a blessing.  The night before we misread our schedule and thought we were leaving the next morning.  So on our fourth day in Istanbul, we packed our bags and headed down to check-out but we were quickly sent back upstairs by reception.  Apparently we had one more full day in Istanbul!  We were so excited because, you may recall, our first day in Istanbul we tried to see the Dolmabahce Palace but the line was too long. We made sure that was our first stop on our last day.

The Dolmabahce Palace was the administrative center of the late Ottoman Empire with the last of Ottoman Sultans residing there. After the foundation of the Turkish Republic in Ankara, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk transferred all government functions to the youthful capital but on his visits to Istanbul Ataturk occupied only a small room at Dolmabahce Palace as his own. He stayed, welcomed his foreign guests and made a practical center for national, historical and language congress and for international conferences.

Dolmabahce Palace has a signficant meaning for the Turkish people as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had used the palace as a residence and he died in this palace on November 10, 1938 at 9:05 A.M. All the clocks in the palace are stopped to mark this time. 

Unfortunately, the palace's status as a royal residence precludes the taking of pictures inside, but we did take many pictures outside.

The clock out front

The entrance

The gate of the Sultan

View of the city

Chris took time to smell the roses in the garden

We also visited the Harem and Crystal Staircase inside the Palace walls but, again, we weren't allowed to take pictures.  Outside the Crystal Staircase were many types of birds: roosters, chickens, and peacocks.

The back of a peacok.  It didn't want to turn around for us.

After the Dolmabache Palace, we went to Taksim Square to walk around and grab lunch.

Galata Tower

As we made our way back to our hotel, we took this very steep street.  It doesn't look as steep in this picture as it was.  Another odd thing about this street, there were multiple guitar stores. 

Like many big cities, there's tons of street food in Istanbul: watermelon, corn on the cob and candy.  Since this was our last day, Chris tried the very unusual candy on a stick.