A beautiful city - Istanbul - TravBuddy

I was fortunate enough to go to this fantastic city over my uni spring break this year. Personally it was probably my 4th favourite place I have ever been. Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque were fantastic, and honestly worth the trip to themselves. We took a boat trip, which honestly wasn't worth it, but maybe thats because we picked one of the worst times to go to Istanbul. I would recommend seeing the city in April or May, because we had 1 sunny day out of 5 in March, and apperently thats the norm. Topkapi Palace was nice, and relatively inexpensive, and definatly worth at least exploring. The Grand Bazaar... this deserves its one entry I think but Ill try to sum it up here. MASSIVE, and a maze. If you find something at a store you like, but want to shop around (like I did) good luck finding it again. I wandered around for a good 30 min. trying to find the same shop again. You can buy just about anything here, and haggling is greatly encouraged. I would recommend walking away because they usually will chase you down and give you the deal you wanted. Just outside, watch out for the cologne and sock sellers, they are particularly aggressive, but if they wont leave you alone, just walk into the bazaar (they wont follow you) or walk towards a police or security guard. One of them wouldnt leave me alone and was basically jumped by 2 police officers, who spotted him. Great city and definatly worth the journey