The final stop

We arrived pretty knackered from the sleeper, with the 1am and 3am border crossings taking out nice big chunks of actual sleep! We hopped on the terrifyingly long Marmaray train from Halkali, and sped into the centre of the megacity. 

Having checked into our lovely Airbnb, we had some horizontal time before heading out to see the Blue Mosque. We arrived at around 15:30, just after it reopened after being closed for an hour of prayers. We stepped inside and were blown away by the sheer scale and beauty of it.

The intricacy of all the patterns was a sigh to behold, and we could have spent several hours staring up at the tiles and mosaics.

However, we were really flagging by this point, so headed back, dropping off 2 canisters of film to be developed on our way!

We went back out in the evening, on our way to an excellent kebab shop for our first proper meal of the day! 

It was all delicious, and the perfect end to quite a long and tiring day!

The next day, we explored the area around our apartment, discovering all that Galata had to offer! We found a wonderful number of little bookshops, cafes, and even a brilliant leather notebook shop!

We then, for the purposes of epic bragging rights, decided to head to the Asian side of Istanbul - completing our end to end crossing of Europe. 

With Europe on the left, and Asia on the right, it was fab to see the other half of the megacity.

Finally, after a lovely meal with the parentals, we went for a nighttime pootle, and came across the triumphant football crowds!

The next day, we headed to the Pera Museum, housed in a former hotel and filled to the brim with beautiful paintings and mosaics.

From there, we headed to the Tünel FUN-icular, and whizzed down the hill towards the Spice Market.

The Spice Bazaar was incredible - an explosion of colours and scents, although in all honesty I wasn't in the market for any spices so it wasn't too hard to resist a purchase!

From the bazaar, we walked up to the Suleymaniye Mosque, which was beautiful to look inside, as well as visit the adjoining Mausoleum of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent.

And from there, we took another(?!?!) FUN-icular up to Taksim square before walking back for the evening!

The next day, I continued my acquisition of wonderful souvenirs with a beautiful leather notebook. We then headed to Gülhane Park, which was stunning in the spring sun.

Which then lent us stunning views of the Blue Mosque.

We also swung by the Hippodrome, historically used by the Romans for chariot racing, now filled with some cracking obelisks.

Afterwards, we went to the Binbirdirek Cistern, historically used for water storage, although not any more!

From there, we headed back, stoppingly briefly to fight with my nemesis, the T1 tram. I also picked up my developed B&W negatives, some of which I'm really pleased with!

We finished the day with a lovely mezze meal at Mayko Lokanta, a perfect finish to a perfect trip.