Istanbul, Turkey

We trained from Litochoro to Thessaloniki and then bused from there to Istanbul.  Plenty of room on the bus, and the border crossing was pretty much non eventful, so all was good.  The sights along the way looked great even though it was dark we could see that we followed the coast a bit, it would have been great during the day, but the bus service only runs at night so we had no choice.  We arrived to a beautiful sunrise and into a massive bus station, it was three levels, there seemed to be hundreds of buses.  We sorted out our conection to where we needed to go and headed off.

Sunrise at Istanbul

People people everywhere, and with a city population of 16 million I guess you couldn't expect anything else.  After dropping our packs off we headed out to have a gander. There are of course many things to see as it is a city loaded with history from the Byzantine era and the golden age of the Ottoman sultans.  The city sits right on the Bosphorus Strait which divides the European part from the Asian part.  There is a huge bridge called Galata Bridge  which has restaurants and shops underneath it and I think from memory is four lanes wide.  We stayed in the Sultanahmet part which is the old part of the city and full of all the mosques and other tourist attractions.

The car ferry that goes across to the Asian side.

Looking towards Galata Bridge

We texted our niece Alicia (currently working in Sweden) who was visiting Istanbul with friends and went to the infamous Spice Market to see if we could find her.  An amazing market with every spice imaginable.  Lots of bartering was going on and you could hardly take a step without being pulled into a "give you good price" shop or "we have the best spices in Istanbul" shop.  It didn't take long to see that all the spices appeared to look the same and come from the same bulk packaging.  But nevertheless there were plenty of yummy things to choose from.  We did think that the spice markets in Dubai were much nicer, the aroma was stronger and you really felt like you were there to buy spices not just to be haggled. We did find Alicia, which was pretty amazing considering the size and crowds in the place.  We chatted for awhile and then a plan was made to meet up for dinner at the Pudding House.  We headed back towards the hotel to see if our friends had arrived. Our friends Nick and Dee whom we met helpxing in Vassara, were meeting us in Istanbul.  Dee and I share the same birthday and we were going to spend a couple of days together.We did meet up in the street, by chance, and a plan was made to meet up again a couple of hours and then go out for dinner.  The streets were busy with tourists and locals no doubt, but about every couple of meters you would be approached by someone with carpets or lights or selling boat ride tickets or showing you their menu or some other junk or even just offering a cup of tea - for free - yeah right the tea was for free but not the merchandise they were trying to sell.  It really was a bit much and quite claustrophobic.  It really spoilt our visit as we just were not in the mood for such an onslaught of pesty people.

Our dinner was very nice that night and the company was great.  We were joined by Alicia and her friends and of course Nick and Dee.  Nick had visited the Pudding house many years ago, but he said it had changed a lot with not the same ambiance as it once had had.

Happy Birthday to us .......

With our lovely niece Alicia

Walking the city at night

Blue Mosque

The following day we walked for miles, and checked out some of the sights again.  The Grand Baazaar, a huge covered in market, with around 4000 shops selling anything from jewellery, antiques, silverwear, leatherwear, kitchenware and of course carpets and beautiful lights.  Easy place to loose your bearings as the pathways lead from every direction with lots of entrances and exits.  Certainly a must do, but again we got sick of the haggling.  We went to the Blue Mosque but

unfortunately it was closed for prayer, so we'd have to re-visit.  After wandering around soaking up the sights and all the history, we headed across the Ataturk-Kpr Bridge, past all the fishermen and fisher women, past a hilarious looking carpark and into the "Man Street" as we called it.   Its actual name was Tersane Cd, an absolute mans paradise!  Literally both sides of the street were packed and I mean packed solid with hardware shops, tool shops, safety gear shops, steel shops, timber shops,  and every other mans handyman shop items you can think of - not a dress in sight.   Nothing for Dee and I, but it was good to see the boys having a mighty time salivating at all the goodies.  It was probably only about 2 kms long if that, but really double that if you think about all the side lanes and the depth of the shops.  Imagine that - yep it was hard for me and Dee, to stomach!  after all it was our birthdays on that day, so it should have been us shopping.  Hey but we did have a nice lunch and Dee did get serenaded by the flute playing Turk - arh - bonus.

Aya Sofya - completed in AD 537, supported by 40 massive ribs its dome was constructed from
 unique,light porous clay.  These rest on huge pillars concealed in the interior walls,
which creates an impression inside the building that the dome is unsupported.

Men doing ritual cleansing of their feet before going to prayer

Umm - which way now ?

Gorgeous gardens everywhere with loads of tulips

Ataturk Kpr Bridge

A fisher woman

Interesting parking - unlucky to be at work early and wanting to leave early.

The beginning of paradise

Getting the supplies that we really need for travelling around Europe! yeah right

Wow ~

A near purchase for Murray

This is taking the "Tui man cave" to another level

Male testosterone everywhere.

Just a few coins later and he was off.

That night we enjoyed a meal at "Homemade" a traditional Turkish restaurant were we had a tasty meal and we were suprised with a fruit flatter made by the owner for our birthdays.

Birthday girl and Nick

Can't really see it but there was a tea candle in the orange - very cool!

Kiwi's and the Pom's enjoying dinner together.

Next day we had to say goodbye to our friends again, so we headed off to escort them to the train station - after a while of feeling a bit like a kid asking 'are we there yet' we finally were, we shared our last cuppa before promising to meet again in England later in the year.



We wandered back we started walking back and did some window shopping on the way back to the Blue Mosque.  By the time we got there, it was closed for prayer.  We carried on and Murray visited the  Basilica  Cistern a huge underground water reservoir that holds 80,000 cubic metres of water.  It was built by Justinian in AD 532.  Now it has been converted into a Museum.Check this site if you want to know more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_Cister

An inside view

After that we headed back to the hotel via a beautiful park that wound its way around the Topkapi Palace.  It was really pretty and the pathway was lined with tulips and pansy's  and other flowers and huge big trees, with lots of bird boxes for the white herons.   At the end of the park was a tea house that was right on the edge of the point and overlooked the busy harbor.

At the tea house

The next day we had some jobs to do, ie a big post back to NZ.  Quite a mission, getting that sorted but much easier than in Italy.  We found out how much weight we could send for how much $$'s and headed off to fill the box to our quota.  So with another visit to the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar and some other shops we were sorted.

The Grand Bazaar

Head scarves for any taste.

Carpet anyone?

Fresh spices galore

Delicious figs, dates, baklava, nuts, 

The following day we were off to see the Princes Islands.  We boarded the boat and it headed out the harbor entrance and sort of headed south east into the Sea of Marama and down to Buyukada Island.  The group of Princess island consists of nine island, with Buyukada being the biggest with an area of 5.5 km2.  All the islands are very peaceful, as no traffic is allowed except for the odd service vehicle.  Only method of transport is by foot, bike or horse drawn carriage.  During the nineteenth century the islands became popular holiday resorts for the wealthy.  And at one stage there was a large orphanage on the island. Buildings and cottages are influenced by the Victorian era and are really beautiful with the fancy balconies and woodwork and the cottage e type gardens.

One of the smaller islands

Our horse and cart (yellow one)

The village main street

Small freight and fishing jetty.

One of the many restaurants along the waters edge.

The very next day we flew to Vienna after much to-ing and fro-ing about how we were going to get there.  We really wanted to train up through eastern Bulgaia and into Romania, but it was near impossible to get confirmation of any kind of transport from Romania into Budapest.  Online it was showing there was maintenance being done, also some lines had closed, so it just was too much of a hassle, so we looked into flights which again turned out to be very cost effective and so much quicker - by about 27 hours!  So it became a no brainer that we were flying.

Thank you Istanbul for having us fossils, but maybe you have too many people for us, having said that we may return one day to go into the Asian side of Turkey.