Istanbul gifs

Istanbul: cats!

Cats!  Istanbul is full to the brim with cats!  I loved it, and made friends with a number of them, I chose not to notice the eye-rolling going on from colleagues Iain and Mike as I ahhhh'd at every single cat I saw.  A cat rummaging in the bin!  How cute!!

Istanbul: the details

// Bela brushing up on her Turkish phrases as we drive from the airport to the hotel // Mountain of meat, our meal on the first night, I ate more meat during this trip than I have in the last month // Tourism police... interesting.  // I hate to sound like an art student here but the light in Istanbul was beautiful and made everything so vibrant //

// 32 degrees celsius almost everyday, that last week of summer was just lush // I used to study diagrams as part of my degree and have never seen diagrams as awesome as these on the tram to Taksim Square // Bollards painted to look like ladybirds, awesome. // A jeton, one jeton per journey on the trams and other public transport, one jeton = £1 //

// Kitsch art! // Security around the city is intense, there are security cameras everywhere, bags are x-rayed when you enter almost every building and there was a metal detector gate into our hotel. // Medusa City Hotel... interesting // This photograph doesn't show this graffiti very well, at the top of this building cans of coloured paint were emptied down the side, I loved it! // 

Istanbul: the sights

The Blue Mosque was so impressive, especially in the evening sun.

All across the city bunting advertising the Korean festival in the old city festooned lamp posts, this photo gives you a slight impression of how densely packed the city is, with buildings, traffic and people.

View from the Hagia Sophia.

View of the main shopping street on the European side of the city.  This photo doesn't show you how packed it was, walking the length of this street at home in the UK would have taken ten minutes max, but here it was more like 40-45 mins.  On the left is one of the food wagons found throughout the city, I love that they are shaped like the trams which travel across Takim Square.

Inside the Blue Mosque, the roof was stunning but to tell you the truth... the overwhelming smell of feet reduced the length of our visit.  Dang is stank.

Last view of the city was we fly home.

Istanbul: skyline

The view from the roof-top bar at our hotel, from the tales others at the conference were telling about their hotels we had researched our hotel well!  It turned out to be a lot quieter than many others, and cheaper as well.  Hoo-rah!

Catching the ferry from old city to new city just as the sun was setting, very beautiful.

Yep, we were invited to a drinks reception at the British Consulate. 

Istanbul: the spice and grand bazaars

Entrance to the spice bazaar, I love the neon signs, if I could afford a few I would definitely have neon signs in my home.

I wasn't going to start my Istanbul series of posts with the bazaars because we actually visited these at the very end of our trip but I just love the colours in these photos so thought I would I share these so you get a flavour for Istanbul!  

Let me start this properly, last Monday my colleagues and I flew to Istanbul to attend a conference for International Educators.  It was my first visit to Istanbul and I was equally excited and nervous.  Our journey was delayed at every single point, the M4 was shut for several junctions, there was a technical fault with our plane and we were delayed by an hour then we hit rush hour in Istanbul.  By the time we got to bed we were very tired and had three very, very hectic days of meetings and workshops ahead of us.

On Friday we grabbed three hours in the morning to visit the spice and grand bazaars on the Asia or old city side of Istanbul before our flight home.  The bazaars were a riot of colour, smells and noise.  I wasn't great at haggling and had to send my colleague Iain in to haggle for me, I turned all shy and British-polite!

I LOVE Turkish Delight.  The choice was overwhelming but have to say I'm a sucker for traditional rose flavour.

Not even tempted to try one on but the colours are amazing.

This stand reminded me of our Jim, he plays the ukulele.  If I hadn't taken a ridiculously small suitcase I would have bought him one :/ 

Pashminas galore! 

We were so tired and weary by the time we reached this lovely cafe, three packed days of conference, and early start and a lot of walking had taken it's toll.  I had the best cup of coffee I think I have ever had at this cafe.