It’s our final day sightseeing in Istanbul. Tomorrow is a travel day, and we’re off to Latvia.

After visiting the Aya Sofya yesterday morning, in the afternoon we went to see the Galata Tower, on the “Asia” side of the Golden Horn of Istanbul. It’s a very tall medieval stone tower built in 1348 and has 360 degree views of this great city. After waiting in the hot sun for seemingly ages we finally gained entry and were transported by elevator to the 5^th floor of the tower, then had to walk up the final two floors via a dizzying spiral staircase. The view from the top of the tower was spectacular and worth the tram ride, and the funicular ride to the top of a very tall hill (option A was to ascend to the top via about 1000 steep steps. No way – not going to happen).

Galata tower

Istanbul from the top of the Galata Tower

Riding in the tram was an experience in itself, with passengers packed in like sardines in a tin. We were most grateful that the tram was airconditioned, it’s been hot and humid every day.

Kamikaze is the only word to describe the traffic, the pedestrians, and Sultanahmet’s wonderful Kedi – cats in Turkish, pronounced Chedi. More on the cats later…

Traffic is a chaotic nightmare, how we haven’t seen any collisions or people bowled over and killed is a miracle. Every time we wanted to cross a road, we took our lives into our hands – terrifying. No-one wants to give way to anyone else. There seems to be only one road rule – KEEP MISSING!!!! Pete mentioned the fact that the population of Istanbul is the same as the entire population of Australia. Think about that for a moment, and then imagine the number of people and the number of cars.

Istanbul is built on numerous steep hills, with apartments filling the skyline in all directions, as far as the eye can see. Cemeteries are relegated to the very steep hillside sections where it is impossible to build residences.

Today we took it easy and went for a sightseeing tour on a hop-on-hop-off bus. We had intended to visit the Chora Church, a museum on the outskirts of Sultanahmet but the hill we would have had to walk up was very steep and the humidity so high that we chickened out. Instead, we took an easier option and went on a chairlift ride to a high point which offered more excellent views of the area.

After lunch we visited a mosaic museum which was very interesting but not nearly large enough.

Mosaic

Gladiators and lion mosaic

another mosaic

Kedi and deer mosaic

Back to the Kedi – cats. The Turkish people love their cats. They are everywhere, hundreds of them, roaming the streets looking for food which the locals put out for them together with drinking water. They come in all sizes and colours, from cute fluffy kittens, to rangy old toms. Kedi also have the Kamikaze gene, they just wander across the roads as they please with drivers never touching their brake pedal to avoid hitting them. I’m sure that Turkish cats must have been allotted 18 lives instead of the usual 9 that Australian cats have!

Nice meeting you

It’s now 5 pm, enough time to do a pre-pack, have a shower and then find somewhere to have dinner. Have I mentioned how good Turkish food is??

Uz redziti. Brauksim us Latviju. (Bye. We’re going to Latvia).

Ilze