Turkey

I booked our flights through Turkish airways which was the cheapest, but it also allowed us to stay in Istanbul for 25 hours and the airline paid for us a hotel. I thought it was great. The only downside to this is that we landed at 5 in the morning, getting to the hotel at 6:30 and obviously, there was no room available. We dropped our bags, ate breakfast at the hotel and we were out sightseeing by 9 am. The hotel had an amazing terrace which had a view of the sea to the left and the Blue Mosque to the right. amazing! we saw the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, the Grande Bazaar and lots of stray cats. After lunch we were so tired and still had no room, so we laid in the sofas in the lobby and took a small nap. Once we got our room and showered we headed to the terrace for coffee, fries and drinks, then off on a Bosphorous boat cruise. We finished with dinner at the hotel and watched the sunset. While we didn't see everything in our 25 hours, we definitely saw a lot and the girls got to hear the prayer call while on the boat ride. We definitely saw this was a city of old and new and hundreds of beautiful mosques.