The Final Countdown. Day 2: Istanbul

Sunday 1 April

So, turns out the bed isn't so comfy after all. I know I'm already like the princess and the pea, but my god those springs had some pointy power! Definitely not the best room we have ever had and probably pretty much close to the worst, but you get what you pay for, I guess!

So after a very restless night, Dan and I got breakfast underway. To save money, we have brought with us a big bag of muesli and some implements with which to eat it. We trialled this in Prague a few weeks ago and it worked really well, so it'll save us money and time in the mornings when our accommodation doesn't come with breakfast included. 

Our muesli worked fine, and we got ourselves prepared to join our morning free walking tour, starting at 10.45am. We easily found our way to the starting point at Hagia Sophia, and were immediately confronted by the ridiculous queue to get into the structure. Good thing we weren't headed in there just yet! We found some people with an umbrella but we weren't sure if it was the right tour, but signed up anyway. Turns out, it was, so after we took a few more photos, the English walking tour set off. 

We didn't visit very many places on this tour, as I would have hoped. We spent a lot of time standing and listening, or sitting and listening, instead of being shown around the city. I usually like walking tours because they help me get my bearings in a new city and only half listen, so when I get talked to a lot I tend to tune out. And when prayer time came, it was basically impossible to hear her over the call to prayer. It was good though, and I learnt a lot about the city. We visited (but did not go inside the paid areas of):

• Hagia Sophia
• Topkapi Palace courtyard - this will be a good place to come back to if we need a rest as it is some quite beautiful gardens and the front is free entry
• Restored houses on the outside of the palace walls, where we learnt a bit more about the male/female divide from the Ottoman era 
• Our little break was in an artists residence and coffee shop in the backstreets of the Old City
• The various columns erected in the main square.

I was very interested to learn that tulips, my absolute favourite flower, originates from Turkey! Turkey are a little put-out that after gifting them to Holland, that Holland have made themselves to be the tulip capital of the world and therefore Turkey wants to try to take some of the recognition back. I don't mind! Keep planting those beautiful tulips :) 

By the time the walking tour finally finished, it was almost 2pm and I was getting pretty hangry. She had mentioned that there were good cheap places around the Spice Market, so we decided to make that our next destination. On the way to the tram stop, we quickly ducked into the courtyard of The Blue Mosque which is as far as we are allowed to go at the moment as the inside is under renovations.

We decided to give the tram network a go today, and after checking we had enough credit on our Istanbulkart, we passed through the barrier and waiting for a tram. One arrived shortly after, and the mass of people trying to get on and off was incredible. We chose to wait for the next one that was coming in 1 minute... There was slightly less of a push to get on this one and I managed to get a seat, but I almost died of heat exhaustion and lack of oxygen as there was literally no airflow. I was rather glad to get off a couple of stops later on the foreshore.

We followed some signs towards the Spice Market, and on the way we were beckoned into a kebap shop. It looked alright and it had nice seating outside. So we had our first kebap - I didn't know what we ordered as the gentleman didn't speak much english, but the meat was tasty so that was good. We also threw our first Turkish Coffee in there which started off rather delicious! And ended up gagging on it as all the grind had settled on the bottom. I'll try again tomorrow. The bill was far more than we had paid for dinner the previous night, and we were shocked. We reminded ourselves that we had probably just walked into a tourist trap and to be a bit more careful in the future!

Walking on, we found a market. We figured this had to be the Spice Market, but we were very confused as we circled the outside and could only find stalls for bird cages and pet food, leeches in giant bottles and some plants. I couldn't get over the leeches. I kept staring in morbid fascination. What are they using them for in this day and age?

Upon completing the lap, I noticed an archway and realised that in the lovely building next to the leech market was the Spice Market. Oops. Let's pretend that we knew that all along. Inside it was really beautiful, but crazy busy. Shop after shop selling turkish delight and other candy, spices of all colours, implements needed to make Turkish coffee, rugs, cushion covers and the absolutely gorgeous Turkish lamps. I could have spent a lot of money - and everything was very well priced, to be honest!

After emerging from the other side, we walked across the pedestrian bridge, stopping along the way to take photos of the mosques and many fishermen who lined the way. Once on the other side, I needed a sit down and we watched the big ferries coming in while we planned our next move. 

Our tour guide had told us that a hotel next to the Galata Tower would have amazing views over the city, and so we started trekking up the hill towards that. On the way, we realised we had ended up in the middle of the road and, following the locals, we ended up literally walking on the road against traffic. It seemed to work fine...!

At the Galata Tower (which is on my list to climb), the queue was horrendous and so we wandered into the hotel opposite. Unfortunately on the top level it is not open (as we had thought) and there was a wine bar there, and in the end we chickened out taking photos as it looked too posh and expensive for what we were after at that time (which was just to take a handful of free photos!)

I will digress here momentarily and mention that today I kept a Cat Tally. This turned out to be a hideous mistake but since I had started it I had to see it through. I will not be keeping a Cat Tally tomorrow or any other days this trip! It got completely out of hand. The Cat Tally is simply how many (stray) cats we witnessed wandering around the city.

Cat Tally: 29

Cats that Dan managed to pat: 3

From now on, I'll just keep a Dan's Pat Tally instead. Far less commitment! (Although knowing Dan, he might try harder tomorrow...)

This kitty was very happy for pats. And how about that creeper in the background?!

We sat for a while overlooking the city and rested our feet, and saw some stray puppies. They were sho cuuuuute. We then caught the metro to Taksim Square (the train was full of rowdy football supporters!), and then from there the funicular to Kabatas. There wasn't very much around here for us to do - the waterfront was mostly blocked off, but we spent some time watching A LOT of stray cats and ducks forage for food behind a fence.

As the sun was setting, we caught the tram back to Sultanahmet for some photos of the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque in the beautiful evening light. After wandering around for a bit longer (and seeing more cats), it was time for dinner, and we couldn't help ourselves but go back to the place we went last night! I normally hate doing this, but we had such an enjoyable experience there and the prices are ridiculously cheap (especially for Istanbul) that we just went with it. 

Tonight we tried a few different things on the menu, including salgam, which is parsnip juice - and very, very strange! I think I liked it, not sure I"ll buy it again though...it was spicy, and sour, and tangy, and not very refreshing but still mostly enjoyably. I think. I ordered just some dips because I wasn't super hungry, and Dan had something which translated to "cork tile", which seemed to be a sizzling mushroom dish. The dips came with that amazing bread from last night, and I was in heaven. We finished off with some more apple tea - the whole bill coming to approx €9.

And now we are back at our - quite literally - crappy hostel. Apparently the water has gone out in this section of the city and no one can flush the toilets. Hurrah for shared bathrooms!

It was a full on day, but tomorrow is supposed to be a bit rainy so we wanted to make use of the sunshine as much as possible today. Lots of indoor activities planned for the morrow!

Until next time,

xx

P.S. All pictures at the moment are just from my crappy iPhone 5, I haven't uploaded anything from my decent camera.