Merhaba, Istanbul!

Another day of travel madness is complete and well worth it! As we are at last in Istanbul! From the glimpses we got out of the shuttle window as we arrived in Sultanahmet, it is going to be quite amazing. When we arrived it was already after 10pm here. What at first seemed like a 'normal' enormous neon encrusted city, we entered the 'old' area and it suddenly became cobbly narrow streets lined with Turkish restaurants and a generally exciting, if definitely touristy vibe. Oh yeah, and a truly enormous mosque lit brightly just over to the left with huge spires at each corner, and strangely many glowing birds circling around the towers.

This morning saw us adventuring across London by both bus (yes, double decker red bus) and then train to get to Gatwick airport. The station at London Bridge where we changed from bus to train is right at the base of The Shard, a new London skyscraper that Greg has been vaguely interested in the construction over the past year or so. So it was pretty cool to see that. It is crazy tall!

(Greg, a London bus, and The Shard - they would't all fit in the photo together!)

After resisting the urge to buy many pasties (mainly because we had leftover pizza in our bag for lunch already) we successfully caught the train to Gatwick and then successfully killed about three hours waiting at the airport for our gate to open!

Our flight was delayed but we were pleasantly entertained at our gate by a crazy old Turkish lady who was upset at having to pay a fine for being 14kgs overweight in her HAND LUGGAGE. And also about twenty children chasing each other around, giggling and shouting. Of course those same twenty, happy children at the boarding gate turned into twenty screaming children at take off and landing. Greg noted that they didn't really need to bother with the announcement that we were starting the descent, the sudden onset of screaming and weeping around the plane made it fairly clear. On the other hand, I was completely unconscious for the entire flight (except the meal of course), so wasn't too bothered by any of it.

We have also been desperately trying to get a bit of Turkish sorted. Greg can count to ten already. I excitedly recognised one of the Turkish stewards saying 'yes' to his colleague, and I think I have understood the word 'thank you' over the intercom. But neither of us have spoken any yet. So far everyone has enough english that we don't need it. I kind of wish they would use a little Turkish (please, thank you etc.) just so I can get a better idea of how to say it properly before I attempt to use it myself!

Well, time to hit the sack. Accommodation seems lovely and free wifi is always fantastic.

I leave you with a photo from a duty free shop in Istanbul that instantly made me think of Hamish and Michael, can't imagine why...


:) Jane