The oldest city….we have visited

We were the first people out of the hostel this morning about 9.30am... lazy starts seem to go with the heat here. The humidity is making 30 degrees seem more like 40 something!

The first challenge was to work out the public transport system to avoid a 45min walk in this heat... was a bit too tricky in the end with the atm only having given us large notes...A taxi it is! All the way into the old town to start our walking tour. We had almost 3 hours packed full of history in possibly the smallest radius we’ve done on a walking tour. Included was the art of bathing, Topkapi Palace, the Hagia

Sophia, the Blue Mosque, underground cisterns, the Hippodrome and some tips on navigating the Bazaars. Possibly one of the more commercial tours we have had but extremely informative and many tips on how to get the most of your time in Istanbul. The depth of history in Turkey and Istanbul is immense from the Byzantines, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans and now Turks and each of them have left their mark on the city.

At the end of the tour we were pointed in the direction of a carpet and jewelry shop which had been built before they discovered there was an ancient underground cistern below it. The owners were ordered to tear down their shop to preserve the cistern but managed to negotiate and preserve the cistern without pulling down their shop and it now serves as an exhibition space which is free to enter. The current exhibition shows the history of the Hippodrome, a Roman arena for sport like chariot races, and a model of what it would’ve

looked like back in the day. Fascinating stuff, and if you liked you could even order some mini replica statues to take home from their gift shop. They never miss an opportunity here!

We scored a table by ourselves on a breezy terrace for lunch and to wait until the Blue Mosque was open to the public for visiting. Being a Friday it is only open for prayers most of the day. Speaking of which, the call to prayer is quite a thing to behold in Sultanahmet, the old part of the city. It rings out of speakers on the minarets of the Hagia Sophia and then the Blue Mosque responds. As they are across the park from each other it is really impressive. We were told that it is now only in Arabic. Most of the Turks do not speak Arabic but just get the gist that it’s time to go and pray.

Being prepared we were dressed appropriately to enter without any additional clothing offered by the lovely ladies in the garden for free to cover up scantly clad tourists, which means your knees or shoulders showing for the men and you legs, arms and hair for the women. In the courtyard there were big panels on one side explaining the background of Islam and some information about the holiest sites in the Islamic world. This was useful as we both really don't know that much about it. Unfortunately for us they are restoring the tile work inside the Blue Mosque so we couldn’t see the whole

roof but what we did see was beautiful. By now our feet were giving us a bit of grief so we wandered down around the old town down to the Galata Bridge to see the famous fish restaurants and across the bridge where loads of people were fishing. There is so much colour, babble and activity everywhere here! A freshly squeezed juice helped us to get back up the hill to our hostel where we had a rest.

We decided to let ourselves get lost when we went for dinner tonight and found some incredible little streets and coffee shops before finding ourselves at the bottom of the hill again. A delightful restaurateur assisted us with his menu and suggested we eat the special chicken saute (as we can have chicken sish anywhere!) and the meatball grill. Both delightful and washed down with the yoghurt drink Ayran, a new fav. Jo even tried a katmer for dessert, a flat flaky pastry with pistachio creme inside. Needless to say that had to be shared it was so delicious!

It was such a hot and still evening so it was too hard to sleep despite knowing we have an early start tomorrow. Coffee and chats with our hosts was a great way to pass the time and distract us from the heat and before we knew it, it was after 1am! Definitely time for bed.