It’s been an interesting and challenging couple of days.  On Wednesday night we stayed in a tiny but clean and quite comfortable room near Gare du Nord, handy for our train trip to the airport in the morning.  Food options for Ian were limited so we just ate leftovers and went to bed.  In the morning we headed to the station, bought tickets, and found the platform.  When the train came in, it was jam packed.  I squeezed on but Ian, with the cases, couldn’t get in the door, so I jumped off again.  To my horror, my bumbag zip was open and my little purse was gone.  In all the jostling, some opportunist had robbed me.  Luckily I only had a bit of cash, but my credit and ATM cards were gone.  Once at the airport I had to ring the credit card companies and cancel the cards.  I felt sick – I should have been more careful.  Of course there was no point reporting it to the police, as we were leaving the country.

Austrian Alps from the air

A quick flight took us to Zurich, then a longer one over the Austrian Alps saw us touch down in Turkey late in the afternoon.  There was a 30 minute queue to buy a visa (very pretty stamp but just a revenue raiser) and another 30 minute queue for passport control.  Then we couldn’t find our cases, but the staff were very helpful and we were reunited with them quickly.  Next it was time to brave the Istanbul public transport system.  After our bad experience in the morning we were nervous, but we had detailed instructions on obtaining Turkish lira, buying tokens from the JetonMatik machines, and changing from the train to the tram.  It was the cheapest airport transfer we’ve ever done – 6 turkish lira each ($A3.50).  All this was achieved without problems and we alighted at Sultanahmet tram stop at 7pm.  We thought we’d stepped into Disneyland – the minarets of the mosques were lit up, as were the fountains in the Hippodrome.  Cafes and restaurants were aglow with twinkling fairy lights and neon.  We bumped the suitcases down a series of cobbled streets, dropping quite steeply downhill.  After knocking on the wrong door – there are two house numbering systems here and we chose the wrong no 29 – we found our little apartment.  What a relief to finally be here!  After a late dinner at an excellent restaurant we collapsed into bed.

What we have learned:

• There are stray cats everywhere
• Buttermilk is not real milk (yuck)
• Apple tea is delicious
• A compass is very useful as no street runs in a straight line
• The call to prayer occurs five times a day, starting around 6am. It is hard to miss when living opposite a mosque

This morning we decided we needed to have some R&R, do piles of washing and generally catch our breath and get our bearings before launching into tourist activities.  We forayed to a small supermarket for staples (proper milk instead of the disgusting buttermilk).  I stopped in at a takeaway café just around the corner to get a salad.  The owner invited me to have some apple tea while I waited.  He had to go to a nearby market to get the ingredients, but it was closed, so I settled for pizza instead.  His Russian wife/girlfriend played me some Youtube videos of Turkish pop singers to keep me entertained while I sipped my hot refreshing tea. The pizza was delicious.  People here have been friendly and helpful (Ian will tell you more when he blogs about dinner) and so far no-one has hassled us to spend money, just made polite suggestions and happy to take no for an answer.  There are so many tourists around that they probably don’t need to be too aggressive – though we haven’t been to the Grand Bazaar yet.

After lunch we set off to explore, first heading down the hill to the Marmar Sea.  Hundreds of people, locals and tourists alike, were strolling along the paths.  Young men were using air rifles to take pot shots at balloons and glass bottles set up like a kind of rifle range.  The ubiquitous stray cats were all over the place.  There was no sand, just large rocks, where people sunbaked.  Street vendors sold corn on the cob, roasted chestnuts, and dried fruit and nuts.  It is a five day holiday here which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday.  The roads are very busy.  We followed the coast right around the end of the peninsula past the Topkapi Palace, all the way to the Galata Bridge where the ferries come and go.  The bridge was packed with cars and people.  We found little stalls selling fresh fish rolls, they looked delicious.

Strolling beside the Bosphorus

Seaside air rifle range – holiday entertainment

Galata Bridge across the Bosphorus

By now we’d had enough of crowds so we bought another tram token at the Jetonmatik and headed back to Sultanahmet.  We thought we would visit the Grand Bazaar but it is closed for the holiday so we’ll have to save that for another time.

Grand Bazaar

The apartment is old but clean and comfortable, with three bedrooms, a bathroom, two toilets, lounge and kitchen with washing machine (already well used).  The street is very narrow and cobbled and does not have a lot of car traffic, but plenty of pedestrians passing by.  The windows are double glazed and block out most of the street noise but the temperature is warm so we have them open a lot.  Tomorrow Pete and Ilze arrive.

Sultanahmet – the place to buy your belly dancing outfit

Typical Sultanahmet street