We were staying in the Sultanahmet neighborhood and it was great. We were only a few blocks from the Sea of Marmara.
As we mentioned before, on our street there were numerous restaurants. One that we passed by every day had a pet duck that seemed to always be there.
We kept seeing these boys around dressed up in princely attire. We figured it must be some kind of birthday thing at the time, but our later research points towards it being the day of their ritual circumcision. No wonder the older brothers never looked jealous.
In many places we have visited, everyone wants to look at Cielo, if not have their picture taken with her, too (some tourists from Iran in Georgia really wanted a photo with her). But in Turkey she was invisible - they only had eyes for the boy. Eero couldn't go anywhere without having his cap removed by a vendor or ticket taker. Fortunately, he took it well.
We usually ended up walking through the central area between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii). Lots of our tourists came there, too, and we saw at least a couple of wedding parties there taking photos, including this pair.
Also along our street and in the larger neighborhood were many rooftop restaurants. They were all positioned to get a nice view of Sultanahmet and the sea.
Also not far from us from the "Million Stone", which used to be part of a big triumphal arch, and was the "zero point" for measuring distances from other cities to Istanbul/Constantinople.
The apartment we rented in Istanbul was a great setup for us. Two bedrooms, with separate beds for the kids in theirs, a living room, dining nook, and a little kitchen, too. This is the iPad in Scrabble mode in our bedroom.
