Istanbul
Istanbul is such a beautiful city and I really wanted to do the tourist thing. But we’ve already done the major sites and the weather was better (read blue skies). As a result I took no photos and only a very short video.
But I’m ok with it. I wanted to chill out here and I did. I wanted to go shopping and I did. I wanted to hang out with our friend Rebecca and we did.
Unfortunately Istanbul chose to rain on us, so last night we went out to the hippodrome and mike took photos using the reflections in the puddles. I hope they work out. Our little friend, Bruce the (Tasmanian) Devil, was at risk of getting wet so I made him a raincoat. Hopefully a photo will be up on Mike’s flickr soon.
Bruce and the Bear
The fun stuff we did was to go visit Ataturk’s Palace (aka Dolmabahçe Palace) and the Rumeli Fortress. The palace was interesting and had 3 chandeliers – each over 1 tonne, which the largest at 4.5 tonnes. I’m thinking it would itch a bit, if it fell on your head.. The fortress was cool in that the warmth of the day was gone and that I couldn’t help saying wow & “they built this in 4 months???!!”.
Whilst at the fortress I thought it important to answer a challenge which had been thrown down, in my face, as it was. The challenge is that Mike and I must frollick in each country that we visit, I must make a video and send it to our friend Theresa. So here is the first installment:
The last day in Istanbul had plenty of rain and unfortunately the Archaeology museum was closed! I was really looking forward to seeing some freshly dug up history. But it wasn’t to be. We did manage to walk around a lot, find the ever delightful Hafiz Mustafa and spend a little time nomming on baklava, sipping a good Turkish coffee while writing postcards. I hope we didn’t spill anything on the postcards..
That night we made our way to Sirkeki train station and it was time to go! We had a couple of simit (bread rolly goodness), some bananas and a juice each; so we were good to go. It was very exciting to start our train traveling – Finally!!
Yummy Golden Simits
