As planned for the summer 2024 travel seminar to Turkey and Greece, we landed in Istanbul after a 10hr long flight. The journey was great but most of us had sleepless time due to the time zone differences. Soon after landing we were greeted by the tour guide and were taken directly to our first visit site, Greek Orthodox Patriarchate which was one of the first church from the Byzantine times and was a home for monks. The church has many iconographs representing Jesus Christ resurrecting Adam and Eve, Other icons of Mother Mary and John the Baptist. We also could see the relics of three prominent woman monks along with the walk of the orthodox church gazing at the beautiful iconography. Of all these icons and relics, one collection of prominence is the pillar where Jesus Christ was chained to where Jesus was punished with 39 whips during the trial. There were also icons of St. Gregory and other saints.
After that we visited the Spice Bazar of Istanbul which is a historic place which currently hosted spice shops. On the drive we got to see the Galata tower and the Golden horn (it’s a horn shaped water peninsula in sea) in the busty traffic of Istanbul.
Later in the evening we went on a boat ride to bosphorous viewing the historic mosques and city view along with the long rope bridges. Being tired after a long day , returned to hotel for rest and await for day 2 which has many interesting sites to visit .
Stay tuned!
-Lax
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