Istanbul

11 October 2012

I arrived in Istanbul in a fog of exhaustion having not slept on the overnight bus journey through central Turkey.

However, this lifted the moment I stepped off the tram at Sultanahmet and walked into this great city. The Blue mosque and the Aya Sofya were to my right, with an array of enticing alleys off to the left. I found a small room up a winding stairway in a wonderful family owned hotel directly behind the mosque but off the main tourist route. It's a six storey narrow building with two rooms on each floor, a small restaurant in the basement with additional tables out on the pavement and there is a roof terrace with a view over the Bosphorous Sea. It was on this roof terrace that I spent much of my first evening savouring the warm evening air and the amazing views; a perfect place to sample a Efes beer or two.

Istanbul is the perfect place to end my journey. It is full of Asian influences but feels familiar and relaxed at the same time. I am experiencing a real euphoria at having reached my destination and great excitement for what lies ahead in Holland. I feel able to relax some of the boundaries that traveling places on you: vigilant attention to safety, security, time and your budget. Here in Istanbul I feel able to be a tourist, enjoying the sights, food and entertainment that the city offers.

Today I made attempts to regain some degree of decency by buying some cheap new clothes and visiting a waxer! The later was a very novel experience.... In Turkey, waxing is done by ladies working in hairdressing salons. In my case, the lady set about my bushy eye brows with a twisting piece of thread; skillfully plucked out the unwanted hair trapped between the strands. She set about my legs with a roll- on wax dispenser before ripping off both the hair and wax with pieces of cloth. My underarms were splattered with bright red wax applied with the usual wooded spatula, before both hair and wax were ripped off again at rapid speed. The whole operation took no more than 15 mins.... This must be a record!

This evening I have sampled the local 'hamsa' fish, fresh from the Bospherous. It was grilled to perfection and made all the more delicious by the fact that I was dining under the famous Galata bridge looking out at the boats crisscrossing the waters between the Asian and European sides of Istanbul.