The market is bleeding today and it's painful to see all the prices crashing, this was expected since some time and here it is. Anyways, today I will like to share updates of our day 1 arriving into Istanbul.

Our flight landed into Istanbul at around 6.30 p.m., by the time we reached the hotel and completed the check-in formalities it was 8.30. It was not late and we were full of energy and excitement to visit the new City. We had selected our hotel in one of the most central area of Istanbul the Taksim square. It is a very famous area of Istanbul and the city’s main pedestrian boulevard also. There are lots of cafes and boutiques here and it's very famous for the night-life also. Not wasting much time, we freshened up and went to the main square, which was only a 5 minute walk from our Hotel.

Walking towards the square only I could see a big Mosque right in front of me, which at night time with all the lights looked very attractive.

I could see some people going into the mosque and thought that it was open for visitors, so I tried going in. But then the security stopped me and told me that it was only for prayers at that hour and I could not go inside. I felt a bit disappointed, but then of course respect the sentiments of the place. I could get a good glimpse from the outside itself as the doors were open.

The interiors were decent, the major attraction was the exterior and that I could already see, so I was ok with not getting inside.

All of this is a part of the Mosque

After the Mosque, I walked towards the main area of the Square where there is a Republic monument.

The mosque from the other side of the road.

This is one of the most famous street food I found in Istanbul, Corn and water chestnuts.

There were loads of this Doner Kebabs cafe on the way

There was this gorgeous flower shop at the square.

From here on we started walking towards the street where all the cafe, and shops are there.

At the end of it we had our dinner in one of the restaurants on this street. The day 1 excitement was too much and we ended up spending big money on the dinner. The food was so tempting that we could not resist, especially my Son, he wanted to have almost every dish on the menu...hehe. I also found the food expensive here in comparison to Oman. It was a great way to end the evening.

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