Surviving a Suicide Bombing Attack

It was early Saturday morning in Istanbul when a blast went through the air. We were out by the popular Sultanahmet square which is at the center of the historic part of Istanbul. I was with friends from Croatia and my good Turkish friend Ozzy (Uzman). Ozzy worked at the hostel we were staying at and we were giving a tour to our friends from Croatia. I had been in Instanbul for weeks and after getting familiar with all the sights, I would go with Ozzy and show Istanbul to the new friends that would arrive at the hostel. Below, here we are with the Croatian group around the same time that the explosion happened with Ozzy on the far left.

It was a cloudy morning but I knew something was very wrong when Ozzy got a call. It was a suicide bombing on a popular tourist spot. In fact, we had

By |2021-05-06T15:28:46-04:00March 7, 2020|World Stories Journal|

Istanbul: The Heart of the Ottoman Empire

Spent several weeks in Istanbul. It’s such a huge city and so many people! It’s quite incredible. I had never been in a mosque before and here there were mosques in just about every corner! Of course, it was the capital of the Ottoman Empire so they had some of the most distinguished mosques here too.

This is the Hagia Sofiya, one of the largest mosques in Istanbul and was originally built by Constantine before the Ottomans transformed it into a mosque.

The details inside the mosque are quite impressive!

Here we have Byzantine art in the Hagia Sofiya mosque. It’s been turned into a museum now so people can freely visit it.

By |2021-05-06T15:29:02-04:00March 7, 2020|World Stories Journal|
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