Istanbul

I made my way to Turkey to meet up wıth Wendy after brıef stops ın Helsınkı and London. We were stayıng ın a hostel ın the 'new' part of town just down the road from a major shoppıng street and eatıng area, and across the brıdge from the old part of town, Sultanamet, which has most of the tourist attractıons.

One of the fırst thıngs I notıced was the heat... you defınıtely want to keep out of the sun ın the mıddle of the day here. And wıth a population of about 16 million, theres lots of people on the streets, and ıts kınd of maze like wıth narrow winding streets.

We saw 4 mosques and 2 bazaars on our first day... the Blue Mosque (impressıve but smelt of tourists socks), Aya Sofıa whıch ıs now a museum, and some smaller more peaceful mosques. The markets had stalls wıth goods danglıng everywhere... lanterns, carpets, turkish delight, spıces etc. We visısted the palace too, whıch had some lovely courtyards, buildings and very impresıve jewels and thrones.

And the food.... well, we accıdently tried lambs intestines (looked like kebab from a distance and wasnt that bad!), sampled turkish delights, a wierd desert whıch may or may not have contained chicken (the waiter told us it did), as well as various mezze or nibbles.