Turkish Delight?

It's my birthday this weekend (hooray!) and I've just found out from my wife that my present is a trip to Istanbul. Tomorrow morning. Ordinarily I'm kind of an obsessive travel planner but since I only just found out I haven't spent the past month digging around and I'm fairly clueless about the city. I know MrsPerkins has done a lot of planning so I'm not worried about being stuck for things to do but I'd love to hear any general advice, suggestions for things we really shouldn't miss and anything else about the city it would be cool to check out (restaurants, cafes, aquariums, bakeries...that sort of thing). [more inside]
posted by VoltairePerkins on Feb 7, 2013 - 32 answers