Boat and bus tour

Hello!

Happy new year everyone! It's still 7.25pm here in Istanbul but mum and I counted down at 3pm for Melbourne to tick over to 2013! Best wishes for the new year. We're just going to watch the fireworks from the roof of our hotel tonight.

Today we did a boat and bus tour. The boat part was on the Bosphorus and part of the Golden Horn and we reached the start of the Black Sea. We went up a tower in the water as well. Then we had a stop in Sultanahmet (the suburb we have been staying in) and at Pierre Loti Hill where we went on a cable car! We are just packing up tonight as we catch a bus to Gallipoli tomorrow.

Love to all, new year always makes me homesick. We just saw Sydney's fireworks on the tv!! Can't wait for everyone to stop talking about it lol.

Love
Claire
Xox

Dolmabahce Palace, Taksim Square, Ataturk Museum, Dervish Museum, Galata Tower

Hi all!

We started our day doing a one hour tour of Dolmabache Palace. It's so busy here, we were glad we arrived early as the queue was huge when we came out!! Beautiful palace and a funny tour guide. Ataturk died here.

We caught the funicular to Taksim Square and had a look at the republic monument there.

Walked about 30 minutes to the Ataturk Museum in his old house. Very interesting but not much in English!!

Next we went to a Dervish house and went to the museum there. We saw original instruments and costumes.

Finally we queued for an hour for the Galata tower (again - lots of people and queues!!!). The views were magnificent!!

Love
Claire
Xoxo

Topkapi Palace and surrounding museums

Hello everyone!

First of all RIP Tony Greig. We woke up today to the sad news on our TV that he had passed away.

Today we went to Topkapi Palace, where the Ottoman emperors and sultans used to live. We did an audio guide tour of the palace and harem complex. It was huge and took us 4.5 hours! The weather was grey today and drizzly rain, colder than yesterday. But not bad weather, we were still able to walk around all ok!

After the palace we went to the Archaeological, Ceramic and Oriental museums. All were very interesting, we saw ruins that were about 2-3 thousand years old!!

We had a meal at The Han Ottoman Restaurant where we got to sit on comfy couches on the ground and eat yummy gozlemes and drink apple tea. Delicious!!!

Another great day, I'm getting a bit tired but my throat has finally cleared up and my back is behaving itself again. Because I wasn't used to being on my feet so often my back was very sore the first few days. But as for the glandular fever - I win!! Lucky I got better just in time.

Love
Claire
Xox

Dec 28 at night - Whirling Dervish concert

Here are the photos From the dervish concert we saw last night! It was at the Sirkeci train station. Very good!!!