In September last year, we spent a couple of days 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 prayer many times during the day coming out of the minarets, feeling the sun bronzing the skin, sipping 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. Every day when we took the tram to the city center, we passed by the Eminönü station and stared at the new mosque. One evening after dinner, I had the chance to get a nice shot of 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 though I 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 stayed for a couple of days in the city. While we were visiting a bookstore, we found out that the ancient Greek/Roman city of Ephesus was not so far away. The day after, we took a train, traveled to Selçuk, and 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!.