Well I've only been in Istanbul for 3 days but I think I could already rank Turkey as one of my favourite countries ever. Istanbul is just amazing. There is so much history here that makes it hard to decide what to see and what we will have to give up due to time restraints.
We arrived into Istanbul on the morning of the 26th August and can I just say, what a f#%ker of a trip. We did the overnight train from Thessaloniki and it took forever, not to mention our very small and cosy sleeper that we had. We left Thessaloniki at 7.37pm and after a few hours of sitting side by side looking out the window we decided to call it a night at about 9.00pm. We were then woken at about 2.30 by a Greek boarder guard. After handing our passports over for a check we were back off about 3 minutes later. When then snuggled back into our cosy little beds only to woken another 45 minutes down the road but this time by a Turkish boarder guard. This process took a little longer. We hung around for 1.5 hours waiting on them to bring our passports back and deal with a stow away on the train. At about 5.00 am the train was allowed to leave and we finally arrived into Istanbul station at about 10.00am.
Our hostel is the Antique Hostel which is a little bit expensive (100 AUD) but it really is in the best spot, located in SultanAmhet just down the road from the Blue Mosque. So far we've been in and around the Blue Mosque, the amazing Aya Sophia, Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar & the Roman Cistern which dates from the Byzantine era built in the 5 hundreds. This place was really cool actually and a bit of a surprise as we didn't know what to expect but it was quite amazing for a water storage shelter to the palace.
I was always looking forward to Turkey and thought it would be a great place but after only 3 days it really has blown me away. The people are possibly the nicest people in the world. I don't think I've had so many P & Q's and definitely not in any Muslim country. What a wonderfully magical place it is and I can't help to be exited for the rest of the trip.
