Day 2

Because of our missed connection yesterday we had a nice day to explore Istanbul. Because our luggage is somewhere in Kyrgyzstan we first headed to the ‘local’ Mall of Istanbul to buy a hoodie to keep warm. After a nice taxi journey into the city we first headed to the Blue Mosque which was of course, in par with our tradition, in scaffolding..

After visiting the Blue Mosque we headed to the Hagia Sophia. Sadly the lines were too long to visit it today but the outside is pretty impressive. We decided to instead journey into the Basilica Cistern.

Time for a little durum lunch and head to the Asian side of the Bosphorus river and check out the views.

We just had some time left to enjoy a Turkish coffee in the Grand Bazaar before taking a taxi back to our airport hotel for a quick shower. Time to head to our intended destination: Bishkek!

With plenty of time to spare on Ataturk Airport we decided to take a burger and relax a bit before our flight to Kyrgyzstan.

Tomorrow Today we'll explore a bit of Bishkek but mostly focusing on the Ala-Archa National Park in the mountains South of the capital city.