We arrived 5 days ago in the wonderful city of Istanbul in
Turkey. Billed as the gateway into Asia, Istanbul offers an interesting mixture
of old and new architecture sat side by side (some of the city walls are from Byzantine era).
We stayed in the Orient hostel in the European side of the
city (Istanbul of course being the only city in the world that spans 2
continents, Europe and Asia), within walking distance of many of the city’s
main attractions.
The Blue Mosque
Istanbul has been the first place where we have been able to
stay for a few days, and it really makes a difference in terms of what you are
able to see and do.
The first day we made a trip to the Grand Bazaar, which is
the city’s largest indoor market area, and you are able to buy just about
anything you can think of there. You do of course have to be able to pick
between genuine products, and black market copies which are absolutely rife in
Turkey. The bazaar is a wonderful experience with the brightly coloured
displays at every turn, alongside superb aromas coming from the stalls selling
sweets and spices. All of the girls who are traveling with us tasked themselves
with finding loose fitting clothes and headscarves, ahead of the visit to Iran
we are making after we leave Turkey. In Iran all ladies must be fully covered
with the exception of their hands and faces (with no hair showing across the
forehead), and this applies also when travelling in a private vehicle such as
our truck.
Brightly coloured bowls in the Grand Bazaar
From the hostel’s rooftop bar we had a wonderful view of the
River Bosphorus in one direction, and the Blue Mosque (largest mosque in the
city) and Haghia Sophia (previously a place of worship but now a museum) in the
other.
The second day we decided to take a river tour of the
Bosphorus, and for the equivalent of just under £3.50 we were able to spend
around 1 hour 45 mins cruising up and down the river taking in the sights in
the sunshine. You can find some things in Turkey which are very good value for
money, but equally there are some things that are even more expensive than in
the UK, so using your judgement before you hand over your money is a must. It
is also the first country that we have visited that it is widely accepted to
haggle (especially in the markets), and it is quite fun having some banter with
the locals over prices, even though neither party can understand what the other
is saying most of the time!
It was proving quite a luxury to not have to put up the tent
each night, and to have the guarantee of warmth regardless of what the weather
was doing outside. Having said that with the exception of the first morning the
weather has been excellent with temperatures reaching the low 30’s.
On our final day in the city, we went to visit the Blue
Mosque. Despite still being a fully functioning mosque, the building is open to
visitors at all times of day. Worshipers receive a “call to prayer” around
every 4 hours, which is broadcast from the towers around the edge of the mosque.
Within the building itself, there is a large area at the front of the building
for men to pray with the women being confined to a smaller area at the rear of
the room. If the outside of the building wasn’t spectacular enough, the inside
took things to another level, with a high amount of ornate decoration for a
building of it’s size.
The inside of the Blue Mosque
Our final visit of our stay in Istanbul was made to the
Spice Market, which by it’s name you can probably guess is full of stalls
selling spices and other delights (mainly Turkish delight!). We both managed to
resist the temptation of the food, with the exception of the free samples, and
came out with our money and waistlines intact.
Piles of spices and teas in the Spice Market
During our journey out of the city, we stopped at the Iranian embassy to submit our applications for the Iranian visas. After a hold up of 2 and a half hours, the embassy decided that they would process our applications by Friday, rather than the 24 hour period that we were expecting. As a result, 2 of the group have stayed behind in Istanbul to collect the passports in the morning (hopefully with visas granted!)
The girls in Iranian dress. From left to right: Vicky, Jackie, Janet, Stephanie, Libby, Rebecca, Laura, Emily, Polly and Helen. Vicky has rebelled and dressed in blue so that she can find her clothes in the laundry!
Feel free to leave us any comments on our blog posts, it
will be nice to hear what you think of our adventures so far!
Excellent blog Dan & Vicky keep up the good work. Nice to see a photo of all the girls with their names now one with the fells and their names !! Don't forget the driver and mentor. Look forward to seeing more...
ReplyDeleteThe lady listed a "PollY" in the caption is the tour leader. I will try and get a photo of Adam the driver soon :)
DeleteAgree with Bill this is my favourite blog post so far! And it has made me want to visit Istanbul! Love and miss you both x
ReplyDeleteVicky, Dan, did you visit the Cisterns in Istanbul?(think Roger Moore in one of the James Bonds made them famous) Such amazing ingenuity the Romans had for water collection....and we almost gave them a miss on our first visit ? Worth re-visiting Istanbul for as are the Whirling Dervishes. Do hope my posted comments aren't being viewed as anything other than those of someone who is really interested in this honeymoon trek of yours?? Keep safe, Sue x
ReplyDeleteHi sue,
DeleteMr Ashby aka blog king has only just told me that your comments were here (hes been doing some blog organizing) I'm so sorry about the delay in replying.
I hope you are well and planning more fantastic holidays. Your comments are indeed welcome and I hope that they make you guys at work smile as it sounds like things are tough back at the office. I was going to send you a message direct but the blog didn't seem to give me that option.
The name did confuse us for a moment as dans mum is called sue as well. He tells me that once you have picked a google name you are stuck with it I'm afraid.
I'm intrigued to know what you got fined for in Singapore! Its sometimes tough to know what the rules are in a place and I know its going to get more obscure as we go further east. So far India and Nepal seem to be the worst places for people offering us drugs. India even had massive cannabis plans growing at the roadside!
In Istanbul we did a whole mix of things but sadly we didn't get to either the cisterns or the Hagia Sophia (criminal I know). We have plans to return to the city as its wonderful (especially now we have honed our bargaining skills). When we go back we also want to do a cultural evening to see the whirling dervishes. It was too expensive to do on this trip.
When we went to Pamukkala we somehow missed the ancient pool. The signposting wasn't great and we knew that you have to pay an extra fee so we didn't search too hard. I would like to go back and explore the ruins more and find the pool. In the end we just went along the artificial flat pools as the real ones were in their drying phase(dan also wasn't very well so swimming was out of the question).
So far, fingers crossed, we have been lucky with the wildlife encounters. The scariest so have was a weird spider/scorpion on an Iran bush camp. It decided to scuttle around and around our tent as well as running up the outside of our inner net. We were too scared to do anything and it eventually ended up on someone else's tent who promptly squashed him in record time. On the plus side for wildlife we often have a tiny house gecko in our hotel rooms now which is really cute and we saw a single horned rhino in Chitwan national park (Nepal).
We are currently in Nepal for a few more days and have been granted a Chinese visa so we should be flying to Beijing soon. Will be interesting to see what China is like, going to try and download Google translate and hope for the best!
Hope everything in the office improves soon. Say hi to everyone for us,
Love Vicky & Dan xx