It's Istanbul not Constantinople

We traveled for ages on the train through the suburbs of Istanbul before finally reaching the centre. All of the houses were covered in flags because it was a national public holiday on the Monday. We finally got to the main train station and stumbled out with all our stuff. We headed out the front of the station with everything to get on a tram to the hotel. That was easier said than done as all the trams in Istanbul are jam packed all of the time. I'm not sure why they don't just have more trams. But then again the government doesn't even know the exact population of Istanbul so they clearly aren't good with numbers.

We finally managed to squeeze onto one with all our stuff and got to the station near our hotel. The hotel was only a short walk away (up a hill unfortunately). The hotel was very flash and not at all basic. It was also $60 US a single so it wasn't cheap either.

We all had quick showers and surprisingly, given that we were in a triple room, Lisa, Erica and I were the first down. We grabbed some lunch at a Kebab place just down the road. Strangely, in Turkey, they put the chips inside the kebab and they are cold. Quite odd. Istanbul isn't as cheap as it used to be. It was $5 for a kebab and it wasn't anything particularly special. I was very glad to be in a muslim country though, as I knew that I wasn't going to have to ask about pork in everything (unlike eastern europe where it is a food group unto itself).

Pete wasn't allowed to guide us in Istanbul because he isn't a licensed Turkish guide so he was just our very helpful friend who had a guide book and was full of useful information about the sights.

We started at the Suleyman Mosque as it was near the hotel. It was built in the 14th century for Suleyman the Magnificent (and very large headed!) and has an impressive graveyard in the back. The mosque is huge and really quite beautiful on the inside. Much nicer light than the Blue Mosque. We only got to have quick look prior to the afternoon prayers, unfortunately.

From there we walked down to the Grand Bazaar but didn't go in because we didn't want to get caught up in the shopping. We headed to the main square and had a look around at the various attractions there. I got another picture of me and Travelbear with the Egyptian Obelisk (only this time I wasn't wearing an overcoat). We went into the Blue Mosque, which was really crowded for some reason. We didn't get long there either as it was almost closing time. We decided to go to Hagia Sofia later because the light was beginning to fade and it's dark enough inside at the best of times.

We walked back to the hotel and had a quick dinner at a kebab place on the corner down from the hotel. It wasn't bad and was fairly cheap (by Turkish standards anyway). We all crashed early after our late night on the train platform.

We had a little sleep in on Saturday. We couldn't sleep too late because the free breakfast finished at 10 am and we didn't want to miss out. It was quite an odd breakfast with cereal, bread, cold chips, many types of olives, franks in sauce and fluffy eggs. They didn't even have real juice, just cordial, which didn't really match the flavours that they claimed either.

After breakfast we headed out to see the sights. The others went to Hagia Sofia but given the $10 admission, I decided that I didn't need to see it again. The scaffolding in the dome is still up so it wasn't like I was going to see anything different. I went instead to the museum of Islamic art which is in the hippodrome. It's an odd museum as it is in an old house so it consists of lots of little rooms off a large corridor. It has a large collection of Turkish rugs, ceramics, glassware, furniture, metalware, calligraphy and temple doors. The english explanations don't really match the specific objects but give a more general picture of the region or style.

The calligraphy was just gorgeous and they have some beautiful old Korans. Some of the rugs must have been huge as they only have fragments left and they still wouldn't have fitted on a normal living room floor. All of the rugs are quite worn as they were actually used rather than being decorative like many of the European ones.

I didn't get to see the Ethnographic section of the museum unfortunately because I had to go and meet the others and head onto the Topkapi Palace. It's a huge complex of buildings that used to house the Sultan and his family, as well as having lots of administrative areas. It's pretty much built around three main courtyards with large gates joining them. Some have buildings in the middle as well, while others just had gardens. It was $10 to get in and see everything but the harem.

We pretty much just followed the walls around as there aren't any maps showing you where the various exhibitions are. They have quite a collection of bits and pieces from the various sultans. The treasury is quite small but has some very impressive diamonds and emeralds (all set into very tacky things). It was all very shiny. There is also some impressive silverware in the collection (things to get the man who has everything, like a large model of a fountain and a peacock).

The terraces have great views over the Golden Horn and everyone was out there taking photos. Lots of them will have difficulty picking themselves out of the crowd I think. They are working on some of the tiled sections of the palace at the moment but you can still go into some of them. The circumcision room has beautiful tiles all over the walls, right up to the ceiling. I don't want to know why they needed the tiles to go that high.

We didn't have time to go into the harem unfortunately but from what some of the others said it isn't vastly different to some of the other tiled rooms, just bigger.

The armoury had some impressive weapons and suits of armour. They need to get some better dummies though as they look a little stupid with the hats down over their eyes.

After the palace we headed down towards the station and got some lunch at another kebab place before heading onto the Spice Bazaar. It was another place that I missed the last time I was in Istanbul and was looking forward to it. It was a bit disappointing in the end because it had a lot of touristy stalls like the Grand Bazaar and not that many spice stalls anymore. I was expecting large runs of them but they are pretty much mixed in with stalls selling souvenirs now. It does make the market smell good though.

We then headed in the direction of the Grand Bazaar through the backstreets. That was a bit of a mistake as there were thousands of people shopping in the backstreets between the two markets. This is where the locals go to shop and if you could actually get into any of the stores you could probably get a bargain. We slowly pushed our way up the hill, eventually getting to the Grand Bazaar at about 4pm. I wanted to find a particular jewelry shop that I had been to previously so I left the others to it and headed off on my own. I didn't end up finding it but I think that I covered almost the whole of the place in the 45 minutes that I searched for. I did find another nice stall though and got some Christmas presents there. I then headed back to the hotel to meet up with the others.

It was here in the lobby that I found Erica onto her third wine, as she had spend $2000 on rugs to take home. It seems that she got a really good deal and it included the shipping home which was even better.

We went out for our final dinner at a place called Mosaik in Sultanahmet and it was fabulous. It was more expensive than most of the places that we had been eating at and you could tell (mostly by the service). I had calamari that had been soaked in beer and soda water to tenderise it and it was really good. I skipped the mains and went for a chocolate souffle for dessert and it was really really good. The others really missed out.

After dinner some of the group headed home and the rest of us went out with one of the other Intrepid guides who was in town. We caught the tram and then the funicular into one of the suburbs that the locals go out in. And it was packed. We fought our way through the crowd finally making it to a bar that Bradley knew. Even better, he spoke Turkish so could get us a good table. We stayed for a couple of rounds but were getting tired, so headed back to the hotel in cabs. Some of the others cracked open the last of the bottles of wine from the train but I went to bed (and was much prettier the next morning for it). Luckily it was the change over from daylight saving so we all got an extra hours sleep.

We pretty much had breakfast and packed in the morning before making a quick trip up to the Basilica cistern. It was a water reservoir built by the romans to store water from the aquaduct. It has had most of the water drained but still has a little with some fish in it. It was also 10 lira to get in but was very impressive. It's dark inside and they have lit it really well so that you get reflections off the water. At the far end are a couple of medusa heads that have been used as bases for the pillars. One is upside down and the other is sideways. After much discussion the archaeologists have decided that that is deliberate. I wonder how many lunches it took to decide that it wasn't just that the builders didn't notice until it was too late.

After a quick lunch (kebabs again) we headed back to the hotel and said our goodbyes. Lisa and I then jumped on the tram out to the airport. We had to change onto the metro as well but it only took us an hour all up including waiting for the train.

Strangely, at the airport, they make up go through security before you even check in so all of your stuff is xrayed and you are checked out. They have the metal detectors turned up so high that even the underwires in a bra are enough to set the machine off, so pretty much every woman has to get checked out again with the wand thing.

Lisa's flight was delayed so we headed to the Burger King so that she could get rid of some of her excess lira. And this is the place to do it. It was the most expensive burger king that I had ever seen (and I've been to Oslo!). It was $21 for the chicken burger meal deal. The cheapest thing on the menu was an icecream and it was still $2.75. It is just an expensive airport though because a medium hot chocolate at the Gloria Jeans is $8.

We then had to go through security again to get to the gate lounges and again our bras and zips set the thing off. We changed over our excess lira into euros as we had decided not to spend it all on outrageously priced food. Luckily I got some really good food on my flight to Vienna (ravioli with sundried tomatoes and onion followed by chocolate pudding). I had to go through security once again in Vienna (as if the Turkish security isn't strong enough) and pretty much walked through onto my flight to Zagreb.