Turkey (Izmir and Istanbul)

Izmir was a big city that we called into as our third port of call, we went for a wander around the streets for a while, it was almost 30 degrees so it was fairly hot.

The cruise ship pulled into Instanbul early and we had the whole day there, sailing again at 6.30 pm. We watched the people leave the cruise on the organised excursions and according to our taxi driver there was over 50 buses there to take people on their excursions!! After they had all left we left the ship and hired a taxi driver who for a set amount (which we had to bargain down a bit as the taxi drivers were all there hassling us to go with them the minute we got off the ship!!). We really didn't want to do the organised tour thing and walk around all day with guides, we just wanted to have a look around ourselves at our own leisure. We first visited the Topkapi Palace which is like the Buckingham Palace of Istanbul! It housed their crown jewels plus a lot of other old artefacts like many outfits worn by the various Sultans over previous centuries which were all in excellent condition. It was an interesting place to visit and very different to the palaces and museums of the other cultures we had been to on our trip.

Our second stop was to visit the Blue Mosque which was really big, we had to remove our shoes and the women had to wear a scarf if they were showing too much skin before entering the mosque. Again this was something new and different for us to see. The mosque was very decorative inside and had really soft carpet on the floor for those who pray there to kneel on. The carpet on the floor has markings on it, so that if you are there to pray you know how much space you are allowed to take up!

Our third stop was to the Grand Bazaar. It was very clean and big and obviously had heaps of shops in it. The shopkeepers were all very friendly, I had an Australian Cap on (as it was 30 degrees and hot) and they all seemed to like "Aussies" as they wanted to stop and talk to us and tell us about the Australians who had a carpet shop at the Bazaar which we had already met. There were lots of shops selling the usual take offs of the big brands like Ralph, Louis Vuitton etc. When we were walking past one of the stalls the owner said to us, come and have a look at my wares (which were Ralph polo shirts), he told us as a selling point that "they are all genuine, first class fakes!!!". It was very funny. We loved wandering around the Bazaar looking at all the different things for sale. There was a cat asleep on one of the market stalls oblivious to all the action going on around him. Before we went back to the cruise ship we went to a coffee/chocolate shop in the main part of Istanbul and had a really nice coffee (and the chocolates were nice too!), whilst we were there David got chatting to a lady who was Australian who knew our friends from Rockhampton as they used to be next door neighbours on their farms! Small world.