Our final day in Istanbul was another warm sunny one.  Today was the Sprint race, held at the Istanbul Technical University (ITU) campus.  We were looking forward to running in a more user friendly environment! Pete was feeling better too.  Ian and I had early starts with Pete and Ilze quite a while later, so we set off by ourselves.

The arena was a kind of amphitheatre with bench seats all along one side for spectators.  Oddly, they started us here, with the finish a couple of hundred metres away on a grass lawn, rather than the other way round as you would expect.  The campus was very typical of what we are used to, buildings, garden beds, a bit of pine forest and quite a lot of contours.  Oh, and a large model plane (as per Pete’s blog).  The courses were longer than a normal sprint which suited us fine, might as well get our money’s worth.  Ian was second starter, so was on his own most of the time.  He ran pretty well, working his way up to 6^th and winning one leg, but he made an error right at the end and finished 12^th, not bad out of 27.  There were a couple of long uphill legs in the middle which were hard work.  In the end, he was happy to complete 5 events in a row without an injury.

Ian at the final control

I aimed for 45 minutes for my almost 4 km distance, based on Ian’s time.  Sporting my new Istanbul 5-Days running top, I started out well, thinking “this is all familiar stuff”.  I could tell the runners who weren’t used to sprint orienteering, they weren’t picking up the short cuts across open ground and were overrunning the controls.  On my 7^th leg something went awry, but luckily I spotted my 3^rd control and relocated, losing a couple of minutes.  Back on track, I concentrated on running steadily through the long middle legs.  Another error right at the end saw me on top of a big embankment that I should have been at the bottom of, but I finished in 48 minutes and 15^th place, quite an improvement over the week’s other events.  Best of all, it was heaps of fun and no-one bled!

Me in my awesome new running top, heading for the finish

We discovered the buses were not going to depart until after the prize ceremony much later in the afternoon, but the information tent told us how to catch public transport back to town.  We still had important sights to see in the afternoon, so we left the arena at midday, with Pete and Ilze still on their courses.

Right outside the uni was an underground metro rail station, which we discovered would get us to Taksim.  The train was very clean, fast and smooth.  Next we took an underground funicular down a very steep slope to the Kabatas tram terminal.  Three stops later, we alighted at Karkaroy, the nearest stop to the Galata Tower.  Not initially on our must-do list, we’d been told by a restaurant owner that to understand the “real” Istanbul we must see it from above.  He was trying to convince us to eat at his 6^th floor restaurant, but we decided that the 60 metre Galata Tower would give us a better perspective.

Ian admires the view from Galata Tower

It was a long steep climb to the base of the 1500 year old tower, and a slow moving queue to get in, but it was worth the wait.  The circular viewing platform was very narrow and crowded, but we got a wonderful 360 degree panorama over the city.  It was a birds-eye view (also a cat’s eye view!)

Cat admiring the same view from a nearby rooftop

Back on the tram (we are now expert jetonmatik machine operators) to Sultanahmet, over the Galata bridge packed with the usual Sunday fishermen and tourists, we were finally bound for the place that was at the top of my list – the Hagia Sophia.  We’d delayed our visit until we had plenty of time as we didn’t want to rush it.  There was almost a crisis as we found out the entry fee was 25 TL each – we made it with 20 “cents” to spare!  Luckily we hadn’t bought any food from a street vendor.

The Hagia Sophia was built in the 6^th century, although earlier versions had been constructed on the site 200 years earlier.  At one time it was the most important Christian church in the world.  Later it became a mosque.  After it was rediscovered and excavated by archaeologists in the late 1800s, Ataturk decided about 80 years ago that it should become a museum, for all to visit and enjoy.  Christianity and Islam co-exist here, with the Islamic symbols, domes, minarets and candelabras, and the Christian frescoes and mosaics.  It definitely has an aura about it.

Inside the Hagia Sophia

Unlike the Blue Mosque, where visitors are restricted to a small area at the back, you can move freely round the whole interior.  The overall impression is amazing and you don’t know where to look first.  There are many points of interest to see as you slowly wander, taking in the details, but always being drawn back to what’s above you.  There is a balcony level too, which gets you closer to the ceiling, and to some of the highly detailed mosaics that are still being uncovered.  It was definitely the highlight for me of the sights of Istanbul.

Happy tourist

We headed off for our final Istanbul dinner with Pete and Ilze, to our favourite restaurant, Neyzade, where the waiter looks after Ian very well and the food is delicious.  Then it was our last night stroll through the Hippodrome, and our last look at the floodlit minarets encircled by seagulls.  My favourite thing to do here is to walk through the Hippodrome at night or early morning, when the crowds and traffic have mostly gone.  I won’t miss either the crowds or the traffic!  I can’t say I have fallen in love with Istanbul but I found it very interesting and I’m glad we came.  We’re all more than ready to move on to places new, and right now we’re about to board a flight to Ephesus.

Exciting news – start lists for Venice are up! Ilze and I start together at 12.16, Pete just after at 12.19, and Ian about 25 minutes earlier at 11.53.  There are nearly 4000 entries!