Welcome to the 'Bul

The Blue Mosque
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Our day began with an overcrowded bus ride form Turkmens up to the main bus station in Olympos. We had the pleasure of having three very smelly Turkish men thrusting their shaved armpits in our faces, lovely! When we got to the bus station we sat around for a while and played cards, while the bus station attendant brought us cans of coke and made sure we were comfortable! Turkish hoospitality = awesome.

On the coach up to the 'Bul, Trumble and I were sitting across from a family with two young boys (about 4 and 6) and a baby girl, maybe 18 months old. The little boys were absolutely besotted with their sister, kissing, hugging and making her laugh. It was very cute! The five of them were sitting on two normal coach seats, quite cramped, and the conductor got some guys in the back seat of the bus to swap seats with various people so the family could have the whole back seat...

Inside the mosque
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Soon after the journey began, we got offered coke, tea, coffee, juices by a young waiter with a bow tie on, who also gave us all some cake biscuits and pretzels! Standard affair in Turkey, but we couldn't get over it!

After about 13 hours on the bus, we made it to Istanbul, a bustling metropolis and a spectacular sight for sore eyes! We were walking down to our hostel when we stumbled upon the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia and the Hippodrome. Both beautiful buildings with lovely surrounding gardens. We explored the frantic Grand Bazaar but I was dissapointed by the lack of anything really worthy of purchasing! I did get stopped and asked if I was from Paradise, while Trumble was asked many times whether he was a sultan, as he had two beautiful wives! Very funny... We got chatting to a carpet seller who invited us in for a cup of tea - no pressure to buy anything "just being friendly and hospitable!" A bit strange, he then invited us out for dinner and we decided it was a little TOO weird, so made our escape. We think he was genuinely friendly though!

Topkapi Palace
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The Blue Mosque was extremely impressive, both inside and out, though we didn't learn much about it...

The next day was Cath's birthday, and we started it off by going to see the Topkapi Palace, the home of the past sultans. A huge place, beautifully decorated with handpainted tiles, and ornate gold decorations. Ottoman sultans ruled from the palace in the 15th century, right up until 1839. Sultans enjoyed a life of luxury, and the 300+ bed harem (where the saltans kept their wives, girlfriends and servants) made up quite a substantial part of the palace! We saw the Circumcision Room, where the young men went to recover after their little operation.

The view of Istanbul from Topkapi Palace
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Next we went down to the Basillica Cistern, an enormous water storage tank built under the city in 532 AD. The room held 800,000 cubic metres of water, until it became obsolete and was used as a dumping ground for rubbish, and corpses. It was recently refurbished and opened up to the public, and you can go down and stroll along the walkway through 336 columns, water dripping on your head.

We went back to the Grand Bazaar, and haggled and chatted with the locals. Once we mentioned Cath's birthday, we got an even cheaper "special birthday price", and a group of shopkeepers rushed over with presents for her, for free! Very amusing...

Some tiles
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We had a few birthday drinks, and got ready for our Gallipoli tour the next day...