Conveuropean

In september last year we spent a couple of days we spent In Istanbul. It was a massive sensorial experience from every aspect: watching the diverse people walking in the streets, admiring ancient buildings such as Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, smelling the spices blending in the bazaars, hearing the call to the prayer many times during the day coming out of the minarets, feeling the sun bronzing the skin, sipping a tea next to a pistachio baklava and enjoying a grilled sea bass at a nice restaurant in the Sultanahmet area. As you can imagine there are plenty of mosques in Istanbul. Everyday when we were taking the tram to the city center we were passing by the Eminönü station and staring at the new mosque. One of the evenings after dinner I had the chance to get a nice shot of the this mosque from the other side of the Galata bridge using a long exposure.

I just came back from a short break in Turkey and even if only spent a week in the republic founded by Ataturk, I had the opportunity to get a positive first glimpse of the country. We had a wedding in Izmir and we stayed for a couple of days in the city, but while we were visiting a bookstore we found out the ancient Greek/Roman city of Ephesus was not so far away, so the day after we took a train, traveled to Selçuk and we walked the 4 kilometers to get to this archaeological site. The day trip was worth it because we got the opportunity to visit the different parts of the complex including the beautiful library of Celsus that you can observe in this picture. This library was built in honor of the Senator Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus and he is buried there in a sarcophagus underneath the construction. it’s definitely one of the most amazing tombs I have ever seen!.