We upgraded to a nicer room and had a lovely view of the street with the Bosphorus in the distance.

Today, we gave ourselves an “open day” to explore the city a little and get over jet lag, before meeting with our tour group tomorrow (Rick Steves). It’s a lovely day, warm and blue skies.
We started off by walking along the Bosporus in Gallaport, looking at the shops and the water and the boats. They have made it very pretty for the cruise ships – but none of them are in yet this time of year – which makes it lovely.

One thing we always do in a new city (if possible) is to try and figure out the public transit system. So we found our way over to a ticket booth, and, avoiding the scammers trying to “help us”, we jumped on a tram over to the Blue Mosque. It was a lovely area, with parks and restaurants.

We went inside the Mosque briefly (we’ll be back with our tour tomorrow), and we also walked around the Hagia Sophia. A great place to start our trip and get over some jet lag.

All of these places were overwhelmingly beautiful and we loved our visit. But our jetlag was starting to hit, and we began our journey back to the hotel. Such a great day to start our adventure!