Istanbul; The Gateway between East and West

There are some cities that are large to be impressive (i.e. New York with its ever increasingly tall skyscrapers), but Istanbul has to be measured on a much more gargantuan scale. The city stretches over two continents and is divided into three main hubs; all of which are connected by huge suspension bridges crossing the mighty Bosphorous river that powers through the city. No matter how much we'd read about the mammoth size, population and culture of the city as a whole, nothing could have properly prepared us, first hand, for the incredible few days that lay ahead. 

Everything about our stay seemed to be a new level of intensity when compared with our previous stopovers. The airport transfer, for example, bordered on near suicide as our driver seemed to fancy himself as some sort of stunt driver, descending boldly through the steep, confined streets that weaved unpredictably through urban Istanbul. Hairpin bends, blind corners and increasingly narrow gaps were only seen as greater challenges for our driver - who commanded the mini bus fearlessly to our hostel. Having evaded the clutches of the death mobile, a new apprehension took hold... We'd been dropped off, late at night, in the middle of Istanbul - only for our driver to be as lost as we were in regard to where our hostel was. We tried to decipher where we were but with no avail, so resorted to the 'oh sod it' strategy and chanced a small side street, only to find our hostel had been round the corner the entire time.

Our hostel was brilliant, Ali, the owner, was friendly and welcoming, with a sarcastic sense of humor that a Brit would be proud of. Whilst we were there, we befriended a fellow Englishman, whose journey of cycling from Kent to Australia was somewhat more ambitious than our relativity meagre one month, but equally as inspiring to throw more caution into the wind when next travelling.

Hagia Sophia

Inside the Blue Mosque

The main attractions of Istanbul are their Mosques. They dominated the skyline of the city in both their number and their size and was an unusual experience jumping from the home of the Catholic church to a predominantly Muslim city in just a flight. We visited a couple of mosques including the Blue Mosque, one of the biggest in the city. It was decorated beautifully on the inside, but with a surprising simplicity about it. There are no statues or altars or fresco's or paintings... just ornately painted walls and carpeted floors; it was in huge contrast to Christian places of worship, but just as impressive and sacred. One of the most unexpected surprises during our stay was enjoying the harmonious prayers that we're amplified by speakers from the mosques across the city.   

The climate there was incredibly hot and was only intensified by the sheer volume of people that over crowed the ascending narrow alleys and streets; with flows of people staggering along in each direction due to prospective customers stopping and surveying almost everything imaginable. At the summit of the old town lay the Grand Bazaar, an enormous indoor market place where haggling is expected and accepted and where a successfully negotiated chess board was purchased - a vital investment for our daunting 22 hour train journey to Bucharest to come.

The only reprieve from the furnace of the city's streets was the popular Bosphorous river tour that sailed the parts of the river that lined the city itself. At a decent pace it took an hour to travel just to one end, which illustrates further the vastness of the city's reach and gave us a true sense of how magnificent this place really was. 

A view to eat for

At night, we frequented the popular rooftop restaurants and sat on their terrace, with spectacular panoramic views of the city and the widening mouth of the Bosphorous in the background. Of course, no trip to Istanbul is complete without smoking some Shisha! (hookha/ waterpipe) 

Enjoying the hubbly bubbly

For us both, Istanbul was on a different level to anywhere we'd been before. We arrived with some trepidation, especially when being driven through the outskirts of the city, with the radio playing the type of music you'd associate with middle eastern set spy films! (Spy Game came straight to mind). We left, on the other hand, with our initial apprehensions extinguished by the charm and majesty that Istanbul exuded so naturally.  

At dusk