Friday 24 April

An easy day. It starts with the usual excellent breakfast - I cut down the number of courses as I am eating far too much!

We are met by our guide (Barch) at 9am and the programme is MEANT TO BE: Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, St Sophia and Grand Bazaar. Remember this sequence.

We travel in a really nice van - I have never seen such a cool van. Having a van is excellent as you could walk to the places but with my achilles I am happy to save it for walking around things rather than to and from them. The weather is beautiful today. Probably the same temperature as yesterday but without yesterday's wind chill.

First stop is the Hippodrome - already filled with dozens of tour buses/groups. Then its across the road, remove shoes and into the outstanding Blue Mosque - jostling with hundreds of others (both Turks and foreigners like ourselves). Truly a magnificent sight inside.

A gentle stroll 100m to the Hagia Sophia which in its life has been both a Christian church and a mosque and is now a museum - not one with artifacts; the building is the museum. It looks impressive from the outside but once you are inside its dome is breathtaking.

Back into the van and we are off to the Grand Bazaar - no, wait a minute, our guide takes us to this carpet shop. Now there's a surprise - NOT. Every few steps on the street you are accosted by a carpet seller. But to be hijacked by our guide?????? What is really surprising is that Tina buys a carpet! She tells me it costs less than $4,000!!! What does she mean by this??? She also tells me that she always planned to buy one! What's going on here? How much of a cut did our guide get?

So, the rest of the group get to the Grand Bazaar and we don't. No worries here as we have a full day free tomorrow with nothing planned and only the Grand Bazaar to go to as the last of the big things in Istanbul. We'll be able to spend a long time there whereas the others had less than an hour which is insufficient time to take in the over 4,000 shops.

So, after the carpet purchase we have a light lunch. Finally I find a fresh roll with salami and salad things in it. Plus my second cup of apple tea (I have 3-4 a day - I love the stuff. Back home I have to go to Bulls to get a cup of it!!!). It is good to have a light lunch as I have staggered from huge meal to huge meal.

The van takes us back to the hotel where I have my daily nana nap then blog time.

Some musings on Istanbul/Turkey:
- Why don't Turkish hotels do in-room info so you know what services are available? They are a voyage of discovery
- Turks don't do dessert/soup spoons - you either get a teaspoon (and their teaspoons are tiny - we got one to eat cornflakes!!!) or a giant tablespoon.
- The traffic in Istanbul is ridiculous and being on a pedestrian crossing is no guarantee of sanctuary
- Why do they do chips with everything? I got chips INSIDE a kebab - not surprisingly it was a crap kebab AND they do chips so badly! Cold, limp.
- Lentil soup with a squeeze of lemon is absolutely delicious.

I must describe where our room is in the Crowne Plaza, Old City (room 1201 - tower 1, room 201). As I said in a previous entry, this hotel is 4-5 stars and is mighty fine. There are 3 windows in our large room - 2 overlook the long entrance way/foyer whilst the third window overlooks the reception desk (about 50m away). Very unusual. Nothing wrong with it but I find its location unusual.

Tonight the group goes to a seafood restaurant (the Neyzen). Because of the rush hour traffic it's a long drive to not go very far. The meal is excellent and shows you can have a pre-paid, set menu and it can be good. It starts with meze, a big selection of yummy little things you have on bread (olives, minted yoghurt, stuffed vine leaves, salsa type mixes, beans etc), followed by two seafood offerings (one of which is nice calamari). The main is fish (with its head still on) or chicken (I have the chicken - I am not going to have my meal look at me!). Of course, my main comes with chips. Why? As Tina says, the mains are fine but she has noticed that the weakest course in Turkish places is the main. Then there is a lovely fruit platter (the oranges in Turkey are divine) with a pastry stuffed with banana and honey. Finish up with my 3rd apple tea of the day - I am addicted to the stuff (at home I have to drive to Bulls [20mins away] to get a cup)! All very satisfying and in a pretty street by the sea where every business is a mainly fish restaurant.