I heart Istanbul

Onto Istanbul. OMG I am in love. This city is amazing. This blog post is not going to do it justice. It was a mixture of Prague, London, New York and Paris. Istanbul is a mix of Asia and Europe. The place is just so glamorous and grand. My question is why wasn't an episode of 'Sex and the City' filmed here? It has everything! Culture, food, fashion, friendly people (amazing people), gorgeous buildings & castles...this place is idilic. I can't wait to come back. John and I are its number one ambassador - our question is who is Istanbul's PR Manager? Because sack them now!!! It is such a fairytale.
After celebrating Mass in a little tucked away Catholic Church (Cardinal beautifully translated a greeting from an Italian Priest). He said that there was once a fire in this Church (the church that Saint Paul and Saint Peter met) and the painting of Our Lady got burnt. However everything around it got burnt except for her face. This place transported me to just a spiritual calmness. Following this we dodged the crazy traffic and streets filled with bikes and hardware goods to see a Saltan's Palance. Wow! Hello? I feel like I am in a RomCom...this place is probably the most amazing setting I have seen. Wandering down the cobble streets, the view on my right was like the French Rivera, to my front was a forest of Central Park Trees and at 2 o clock a Princess Castle awaited me...in here we picked the Jewels we would have (I chose the 83carat diamond)!!! ;)
We then ventured to an underground world...very Harry Potter-esque. It was an underground Mosque. There were candles and channels of water weaved through paths of stone. It was calming as we wandered and felt the cool breeze against our skin and the occasional drop of water on our faces. Bliss...then a lunch stop in a Turkish out door lounge! We had a girls afternoon, sitting in the sun, sitting in Turkish lounges, eating Hommus & pita, drinking espresso and of course giggling over the gorgeous Turks!
We then ventured to the Blue Mosque (my first time in Mosque). The children and women sit separately in the wings and the men pray on the carpet. The carpet design is cleverly tessellated so it is positioned for each man to stand for prayer.
Yes I did mention fashion and we differently got some shopping done in Istanbul at the Grand Bazzar. Scarves, spoons, loafers, watches and bracelets later we were already for our dinner which was on top of the rooftop at our hotel looking over the city gazing at the sunset. We all made a packed to come back in twenty years!!