Dolmapahce Palace - Sunday July 5th

We finally went to see the Dolmapahce Palace yesterday. It was a Palace built by the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire in the 1850's. It took almost 12 years to build, and it was so elaborately decorated that it took the budget of 10 years worth from the whole entire Empire (that is Tunisia to the Balkans to Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, etc). Can you imagine? Inside, the furnishings and decorations were pretty elaborate and impressive. Several rooms were covered with art forms gold plated, the stairwell railings were made of pure crystal from France, the largest Chandelier had been made in London, UK and shipped to Istanbul, just to name a few of these highlights.

One of the rooms was the bedroom where Kamal Attaturk (the founder of Turkey) had lived during his last days and died in the bedroom.

It was neat outside too, as there were scenes the boys had never been exposed to. For instance, we looked ahead (before going in) and Munir had to convince the boys that the "statue like" thing in front of us was actually a real man (soldier) and not a statue. It was neat as the soldier was standing completely straight and not moving. We got to witness the changing of the guard as well.

After the Dolmapahce Palace visit we had a quick lunch by the Bosphorus (not very far from the Palace) and then headed on the train again down past Sultanahmet area towards the Grand Bazaar. Turns out the Grand Bazaar was closed on Sundays! There was still a small market set up near by which we ended up buying some clothes for the kids and also some gifts as well.

We arrived home and then went out to Istiklal Street once again and headed to a restaurant for dinner. I had something really delicious. It was lamb kofta with a cheese/veggie mixture on top. Was pretty scrumptious. The dessert I had was pretty good as well - some kind of sweet mixture with different nuts and also made with saffron too.