Istanbul

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Flag of Turkey  ,
Saturday, April 14, 2012

Istanbul is amazing. The building are gorgeous and the mosaics and tiles lovely. In Topkapi palace some of the sultans treasures are jaw-dropping. The topkapi dagger is stunning and the 86 carat Spoonmaker diamond is just ridiculous huge. Most of the important historical sights are tightly grouped together so that you can almost stumble from one into another. It's as if Disney has designed an ancient theme park. 

We had a relaxing day yesterday..... A visit to the Blue Mosque (truly enormous and quite lovely) then Hagia Sophia (such an interesting blend of histories and religions in a truly wonderful structure. 

We ate a kebab in the park, took a boat tour on the Bosporus river and ate a fish sandwich from one of the fishing boats. We avoided the upmarket places and found ourselves with the locals in a dodgy part of the dock. 
A stroll across the bridge and ashley found himself in paradise. We had found the hardware centre of Istanbul. I had to stop him from buying ittings abd bearings and had to drag him away from buying a roll of stainless steel mesh (but it's just what I need to make a sieve).

But what made it a perfect day was then sitting in a little cafe sipping Turkish tea and eating baklava next to the New Mosque as the imam gave the call to prayer. This really did feel like turkey. 
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Comments

stephen on

I hear the coffee in turkey is strong and thick. Seasoned travellers recommend constructing a sieve.

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