We left Munich excited for 10 days in Turkey. We flew into Istanbul on the afternoon of the elections and everyone we spoke to were very excited, impatiently awaiting the results.

We split our trip: 3 days in Istanbul, then a 4 day road trip down the west coast, then back to another part of Istanbul for the remaining 3 days. The first leg of the trip we spent in the older part of town, where many of the popular tourist attractions are located.

Our hotel was nice and the staff were very friendly, immediately serving us a glass of hot Turkish tea (extremely popular). After, we asked for a restaurant recommendation and one of the hotel staff actually walked us to the restaurant the recommended. We were pretty bummed about the meal, to be honest. There was definitely some sort of "friendly arrangement" between the hotel staff and restaurant owners to bring tourists to their establishment. The food wasn't great and was extremely overpriced. We decided from there on, we'd rely on our own research, instincts and moods for where to eat in Turkey, which, for the most part, served us very well.

Turkey is an incredibly reasonable country, particularly compared to other European countries. A bottle of water is 1 Turkish Lira (TL), which is comes to about $0.40 USD. This is actually very good for us for a number of reasons, but the primary being I bought a ton of water (it might not be the best idea to drink from the tap in Turkey, so our refillables were going to be an option).

Our first full day, we hit the Old City. We visited the Blue Mosque, probably the most famous mosque in Istanbul, and one of the few that is open to tourists. It is a stunning building but I have to say I was disappointed in the hoardes of people swarming this sacred place. It was very noisy, something that was incredibly surprising to me. We visited many cathedrals in France and Portugal, all full of tourists, but they were all quiet, peaceful. I anticipated that the people touring the mosque would be as peaceful but it wasn't so. Still, it's a gorgeous place.

Blue Mosque from the front. It was a rainy day.

After we left the Blue Mosque, we headed to the Basillica Sistern. Again, filled with huge tour groups. We quickly learned we were going to have to be very patient, because it was overwhelming and again, very noisy.

We had planned to go to Hagia Sofia after, but we were kind of over tour groups so we headed to the Grand Bazaar.

Entry to the Grand Bazaar, home to hundreds of vendors, selling everything from rugs and scarves to jewelry and tea sets.

On our way back to the hotel, we heard very loud music and what sounded like a street party. It was a gathering of members of the Turkish HDP party, celebrating their victory and being represented by 80 members of Parliment, unprecedented in Turkish government.

We did a lot of wandering in those first three days. We had dinner at a lovely place called Arch Bistro. Preston enjoyed the clay pot, meat and vegetables cooked in these tall pots, the brought to the table on fire. After the fire went out, the bottom of pot was broken off and the meal poured over his plate.

A trip to a local park yielded this charming photograph.

And we took a ferry across the water, the views were stunning.

After three days, we'd had it with the crowds and heat and were so excited for a road trip.