This made it hard to see far out from some of the lookout points I went to. However, I still managed to enjoy myself!
Other than cats, which are pretty normal in the Middle East, I did not see any other animals in Istanbul.
Definitely Pierre Loti Café. Pierre Loti was a French officer in the late 1800s, and there is a beautiful restaurant with his name on the top of a hill. From the café, you can see almost all of Istanbul! The view is extraordinary. On top of that, you can eat a Turkish pastry and enjoy a good cup of coffee.
One of my favorite moments was exploring the Basilica Cistern, an old building in Turkey. It is really cool because it is underground. You need to go down a lot of stairs to get inside, and there is art there. On the floor, there is water. This is because the Romans used it as a place for storing sewage. This visit was a new way to see how people in the past stored their water.
Mostly Turkish, but people speak a little Arabic, too. Turkish has been the official language of Turkey since 1923, when Turkey became a country.
People use Turkish Liras (TL)! They come in 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 TL bills. There are also .01, .05, .10, .25, .50, and 1 Lira coins.
