Category Archives: Istanbul 2011

DAY EIGHTEEN – Thursday 7th April Boo. It’s the last day of the holiday. I’m going to need at least a week off to recover from it. The trip back to Istanbul Airport is a drag – quite literally. It seems the manager of the Asmali Hotel has forgotten his previous offer to drive meContinue reading “End of the line”

DAY SEVENTEEN – WEDNESDAY 6th APRIL So there was a Chinese/Swiss, and Arab and a Turk on this boat. No, it’s not a dubiously racist joke, but the scene on board the ferry coming back from the Princes’ Islands – a collection of beautiful outcrops off the coast of Istanbul. “Beautiful unless you live here inContinue reading “Islands, Horses and Dogs”

DAY SIXTEEN – Tuesday 5th April “So, you are from England? My first wife was from Kent. Then she screwed me over. My second wife was from Australia – she is also screwing me over. I am marrying a girl from New Zealand next month.” It was an astonishingly frank admission from the security guardContinue reading “Spice Up Your Life”

DAY FIFTEEN : Monday  4th April It’s entirely possible to visit two continents in the same day – but Istanbul is one of the few cities in the world where you can do this The Bosphorus divides not only the two sides of the city, but also marks the boundary between Europe and Asia. Since it’s beenContinue reading “Trust, a Tower and Tunes”

NIGHT FOURTEEN – 3RD APRIL 2011 Sunset is the best time to see Istanbul’s varied people doing varied things. Unfortunately there’s been no sun here so far – but dusk gives you some interesting sights, including the fishermen crowding along Galata Bridge, presumably hoping to catch their dinner. Rod and his mates at the GalataContinue reading “Istanbul’s Got Talent”

DAY FOURTEEN – 3rd April 2011 Things often look better in the morning, though before I get a chance to see if that’s the case, I’m woken at 6am by the call to prayer from the nearest mosque. A couple of hours later I learn that my actual hotel room will be available at noon. TheContinue reading “No Place Like Dome”

DAY 13 – 2nd April 2011 this blog post is being written thanks to a long cable and a power socket in the bathroom of my accommodation in Istanbul. But more on that later. I can highly recommend Heathrow Terminal 5 as a place to start a journey – so long as you don’t mindContinue reading “A Room With A View”