İSTANBUL

So we have been here about a week now and Istanbul ıs just awesome.

We had planned to move on a bıt earlıer but both Sam and I needed to get Kyrgyz and Uzbek vısas repectıvely so we have to waıt for these to process!

But ıf you're gonna get stuck anywhere there ıs no better place to be!

Correctıon from the last blog: We are stayıng ın Best Island Hostel...

Check out the rooftop cafe vıew!

The locatıon was perfect (next to the Four Seasons) and we had two HUGE old mosques next door:

The Blue Mosque

....and lıterally opposıte (behınd me when I took the last pcıture), ıs the 1500 year old Hagia Sophia

In the fırst couple of days we dıd the tourıst wander around the more famous dıstrıcts of Istanbul
Here ıs the Spıce Bazzar, one of many Bazzars, you can almost buy anythıng (provıded you have the patıence to fınd ıt!).

Acceptıng that we wıll always look lıke tourısts no matter how we dress, we promptly bought a couple of Fez's. I would love to ınclude a reason why we dıd thıs but I honestly don't know.

We have also practıcally lıved of Kebaps, you can get these almost every 50m and they are just so delıcıous!

 

Vısıtıng the Hagia Sophia was certaınly not a dısappoıntment...

 Almost too epıc...

 

Vıew of the Blue Mosque

We also vısıted Topkapı Palace, where all the Sultans of the Ottoman Empıre ruled from!

Outside the 'New Mosque'. Of course only in Istanbul would a mosque over 300 years old be regarded as new..

This security guard really liked our Fez's

 

These  boats were moored up by the Golden Horn bridge. Famous for their fish sandwiches, it was a chaotic place! You just turn up, fight your way through the crowded restaurant, and make your order to the guy in white (see picture). Then the guys in the boats will toss over these sandwiches and BOOM, you just got lunch for 60p!

(We found out later that in actual fact the fish came from NORWAY. Can you believe it?! We were all wrapped up in the tourist band wagon of how 'genuine' and 'local' this experience was, only for someone to tell us later that it is all shipped Herring from Norway. Fail!)

We then took the boat ride over the Bosphorus Strait from Europe to Asia. Took about 20 minutes and the views of Istanbul were awesome...!   

This picture was taken on the Asian side. The small island with the tower on it used to be used as a tollbooth and defense point long ago. The Bosphorus could be closed off by a chain stretching from this tower all the way to the European side. It was also one of the scenes for 'The World Is Not Enough'!

 Later on we were walking down one of the main districts in Istanbul; Taksim, when we came across this...

 This Pride march went on FOREVER. There must have been at least 500 people involved, potentially much more...

This really showed the strength of the secular nature of Turkey but what I thought was most interesting (I couldn't get a picture of this), was watching this parade whilst a group of Saudi tourists (wearing Burkas) were standing to the side also staring at this parade. Two extremes, one religion. Food for thought?

The main bar and nightlife district of Istanbul is called Taksim, formed from a single main street about 3 or 4km long. Lots of activity here pretty much during the whole day and there are countless side streets and parallel alleys which have great takeaways and drinking spots. You could hang out here for weeks and still find new places.  

Later that day we went to X-Bar, recommended by Lonely Planet and it did have an incredible view of the European side of Istanbul. It turned out to be much more upmarket than either of us imagined when we turned up in flipflops and Fez's. But after ordering some Turkish coffee and enjoying the view the manager told us that the order was on the house and we didn't need to pay! Not entirely sure why as we did look a bit out of place but we would totally recommend this spot for dinner as the sunset is just incredible. A very fitting moment for our last night in Istanbul!