Istanbul

Having just spent the last two days here, I am now of the opinion that Istanbul rocks. Despite a rather shaky birthday involving hours on the truck, hours at the Turkish border, more hours on the truck and finally a cringingly embarrassing party at the tastefully named Meat House restaurant, Istanbul has more than made up for it. The town is a real melting pot, full of East and West, old and new, shops, restaurants, beggars, monks, cats and knock-offs. The Turks have a love of confrontation, using their car horns, voices, elbows and children to get their own way, but somehow also have a laid back attitude which seeps through the city.

There are so many great things to see and do here that it is hard to know where to start, and with only two days I just had a taster of this wonderful place. The Grand Bazaar is still the place for buying cool stuff, even if it has become geared up for the tourists. The shopkeepers have a mostly uncanny ability to guess your nationality and shout greetings in your language, but I got at least two "Konnichi wa"s on my travels. The Hagia Sophia and the Topkapi Palace are the standard tourist stops, and both are worth seeing, but preferably without several busloads of primary school kids.

Apart from these obvious places, just walking around the city is fascinating, with shops selling nothing but buttons, others with nothing but ribbons. My personal favourites were those down a flight of steps, in an underground passage, selling ride on lawnmowers, in the centre of Istanbul. This is a city with a not inconsiderable lack of grass, particularly underground.

The food is absolutely excellent here, I haven't eaten anything less than great in two days. In fact, I have just eaten the best cake of my life at a shop near the Hagia Sophia, I could have happily died with that cake in my mouth. However, I am fortunately still alive, so I can continue with this blog entry.

The only downside that I can see to Istanbul is that it is a real money pit of a city, I have visited the ATM more times here than in the last two weeks. I do have some tat to show for it though, so it's all good.

The pictures show the view from the rooftop bar of the hostel where I am no longer staying, having paid for a room in a guesthouse. It really is a beautiful city.