With a 13 hour layover in Istanbul, it was pretty obvious that we needed to see as much of the city as possible. We planned very carefully the places to see in such a short amount of time. We had three different printouts of descriptions. What we didn’t have was a map, or any information about getting around Istanbul. After spending the first hour or so getting really lost we just got into a cab. We saw plenty of Mosques, including the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. We walked around the Hippodrome, saw some markets, toured Topkapi Palace, and had some wonderful grape leaves and Turkish coffee. The waterfront was beautiful, and Sultanahmet Square was exciting. It was a great start to our adventure!