Merhaba, nasılsın?

June 27-28: Istanbul

Travel day today….Charles de Gaulle airport is very difficult to navigate and un-airconditioned. Istanbul’s airport is SO large, I almost did a Sunday walk to get from the plane to the exit.

Traffic chaos in Istanbul, so didn’t get to the hotel until 9 pm. One of the things you see everywhere are Hookah bars….how’s this for a good role model for your kids

That was last night and tonight she is there again subjecting her kids to the same shisha delight!!!!

Breakfast at the hotel and the croissants looked so amazing, I just had to share the image…

Today, I organised for the guide recommended by Sally and Les to take me around Istanbul. His name is Orguz (nickname Aussie…much easier). He was a lovely young man, and I learnt a lot about Turkish life from him (Sally, remind me to tell you about his recent illness, a few days after he guided you).

Moving around the city was difficult today as the police had blocked off Taksim Square (where my hotel is located) because of a proposed LGBQI protest march. But we started our tour before public transport was suspended…first stop, Hagia Sophia, a mosque built in 540 AD, which had once been a church. We know that because, among other things, the paintings showing Jesus, Mary etc were covered with white sheeting so that they couldn’t be seen.

Then to the Hippodrome where royal processions, races etc took place. Down the centre of the hippodrome were icons from various countries such as an Egyptian obelisk

Then the Blue mosque (the first picture) which isn’t nearly as blue as another mosque close to the Spice market – this mosque had much more distinctive blue colours

Then to the Basilica Cistern, an amazing underground water storage facility….it was used in the James Bond film “From Russia with love”

Aussie, the guide, explained why one of the columns had an upside down Medusa head as its base and another had a Medusa head on its side…this was to achieve the right column height!

Then to the Spice market, full of glorious colours

Aussie shouted me to a Turkish coffee with a basal cold drink and the compulsory Turkish delight…

A lovely cruise down the Bosphorus River, to see the palaces and houses on the Asian and European sides. This is one of the 3 bridges over the Bosphorus.

Then we had to try and make our way back to the hotel…..police everywhere, barricades everywhere ( I had to show my hotel card in order to get through the barricades), empty streets which are normally packed, no public transport operating (which meant that we had to take a taxi to get back to the hotel….i understand Sally and les also encountered some obstacles when they visited last month!)

This cute dog decided to sleep in the middle of the road ( well, why not). Btw, they are obsessed with cats here….when Obama visited 10 years ago, he patted a cat in one of the mosques and the cats image went viral)

A final dinner and a lovely view from the dinner spot.

Flying home tomorrow….thanks for joining me on this journey. Have enjoyed all your comments.