Istanbul, Turkey

 

 

 

 

  

Logan and I finally arrived at the hotel at 4pm Turkish time - we had been up since 4am in the morning so it had been a long day! We decided to head into the Old City area which is fully of yum restaurants and cool shops. We had a traditional Turkish dinner and a wee wonder (I had to find a sweet shop mmmm the Turkish delight in Turkey is SO different to western Turkish delight - its delicious!) before heading back to the hotel for a good sleep. We had all of Sunday free so wanted to explore the city so we hopped on the free hotel transfer van at 10am where we met and Aussie brother and sister, Christian and Sarah and a fellow Kiwi, Rob, so we all decided to stick together and explore the city for the day - Rob said he knew we were Kiwi from me looking at our travel book and saying, 'This is mean bro!' haha!

We spent the next 6 hours together walking around, over the bridge into 'New City' which was full of all the modern shops you get in London which I found bizarre, I really didn't expect anywhere like this in Turkey! We had a traditional Turkish coffee which is the same size as Italian coffee shots but really thick and black - wow! What a hit! We saw so much walking around and went into the 6th Century Hagia Sophia as we saw on the itinery that it wouldn't be open the following day when we would be doing the city tour with our tour group. I had to wear a skirt and scarf provided to go in and you have to take your shoes off. It was so beautiful inside - simply stunning!

That night we got back late so we missed our induction meeting but had a few drinks with everyone in the bar then headed to bed.

On the Monday we had our first outing with our group and tour guide :

'Today we enjoy a guided tour of the old city, taking in the stunning Iznik tiled Blue Mosque, Hippodrome area, the Topkapi Palace and more. This afternoon, we take a relaxing cruise on a Bosphorus Strait. You'll see waterside palaces framed by a modern city skyline dotted with expansive domed mosques and towering minarets of traditional Ottoman style. Later you can opt to explore the mammoth Grand Bazaar and exotic Egyptian Spice Market.'

That night we went out and had dinner on a roof top restaurant  - so much food I couldn't eat it all! A few people went out that night but I wanted a really good sleep cause we were heading to Gallipoli the next day and I knew we wouldn't be getting much sleep the next night!