On arriving at Istanbul we located St Sophia (above) on our map and headed straight into town following the signs to St Sophia. About 500 metres from where we needed to be the road stopped and headed in another direction. We spotted a local traffic policeman on motorbike and decided to get directions. He showed us a rather lengthy way round and on looking at our confused faces just said - or you could ride down the tram line !! We did. Cobbles and very uneven. The weirdest feeling was riding past the platforms about shoulder height with the people looking at us like we were mad. There were also several mad taxi drivers doing exactly the same. We found the youth hostel easily using this route.

Tourist infomration is usually our first port of call (if we can find it) in any place we stop - free maps etc etc. We knew where it should be roughly but not exactly. A very polite Turkish man pointed us in the right direction and then proceeded to follow us asking did we want to buy a carpet - no thanks. But he waited until we came out and continued to try and convince us that life is not worth living without a carpet. Finally we managed to pilotely get rid of him but he was the first of many. You daren't even give a shop a sideways glance as they see it as a possible sale and pounce. The Grand Bazaar (miles of covered shopping) and the Spice Bazaar are well worth visiting but the hassling gets worse there. Haggling is amazing simple (Jenny is normally a person who believes that if the price is x then it is x). Cliff bought a pair of sandals that started at 45 million Lira and rapidly became 20 million ! It was here in Istanbul that Jenny bought her outfit for Iran - a lovelly pale pukey green coloured long coat to match her headscarf (kindly donated by her mother). She thinks this could be the new trend when we get home.

We hung around for 4 days wandering through the mosques, palace etc and generally panned out. Pictures of the main two mosques below. The day we had planned to leave Jenny had left her contact lenses in from the night before and was unable to see clearly so we put off leaving for another day.

Istanbul certainly lives up to its reputation of the place where East meets West. The differnt cultures were obvious and we had or first taste of listening to the "Call to Prayer" from the mosques. At first the call seemed melodic in the background now it can be a pain (especially if you happened to be standing next to one when it starts). We have managed to work out the first few words though - "My black cat, ohhhhhhhhh, my black cat". When we get the full version sussed will let you have the full song sheet !!!