I'm in love with Turkey, it's as simple as that

The drive day to Istanbul was pretty lively, lots of people were singing and chatting rather than sleeping on the bus, so I think we were all really looking forward to being in the centre of the ancient Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, Constantinople or modern day Istanbul.

Day One - How Bazaare!

Once we had settled into our HOTEL ROOM WITH ENSUITE, Ximena and I went straight to the Grand Bazaare and Spice market. The Grand Bazaare is quite flash, and has all sorts of leather, gold, silver, rugs, all the fancy stuff. So we carried on to the Spice markets and started our love affair with the city.

Turkish salesmen are really generous toward female tourists. We were invited into stores, given free cups of flavoured tea (apple and kiwi are my favourites), free sweets, mashala eye trinkets and asked all sorts of things about who we are and where we are from. The most commonly used conversations starters are "Where are you from" and "I love you, marry me". Of course, some of the sales men are more low key. I was looking in a scarf store and the man said "You should buy one for your mother-in-law". But I don't have a mother-in-law. "Then buy one for my mother." We spent about 30 minutes in his store while he modelled scarves on himself, us and the other salesmen. He was funny and oh so smoothe. So smoothe that I bought two scarves and considered buying an embroidered one which was about 100 turkish lera (30 pounds). I resisted his charms and his emboidered scarf, but when we walked past the store later on, he was watching me with the same scarf around his neck. Cheeky.

I had so much fun I actually bought souvenirs, and this is the first city that I have shopped in, so that shows you how highly I rate Istanbul and how many amazing things there are to see and buy here.

In the evening we had dinner in a restaurant - we dined on the roof and had front row seats to the best view of the Blue Mosque in the city. It was lit up and looked stunning at night, and the food was fantastic as well, so I was really happy at having such a fun day.

Day Two -

East Gate to the Grand Bazaare
Busy

Walking tour

We had a local guide for our walking tour of the city, who was really nice. Anything we asked he would answer. During our stay, Rammadan is being observed, so we had lots of questions about that and he answered them all. Together, we saw:

• The Hagia Sofia (divine knowledge), which was built in 532 AD and took only 5 years to complete, which is pretty amazing.
  
• The SultanAhmet Mosque, commonly known as the blue mosque.
  
• The Byzantine cistern, easily my favourite discovery on this tour. An underwater storage facility for drinking water.
  
• Topkapi Palace (where the sultan used to live, now a museum.)
  

After all this activity I needed some time out, because that night we were headed out for dinner and belly dancing. The girls were amazing, they can isolate any part of their body and shake it while the rest of their limbs and head stay completely still. Very sensual, and great costumes too!

Day 3 - Relax

I was feeling pretty run down and still sick, so on Day 3 we took it easy. In the morning we walked around the markets, and got invited into a sweet store for food and a chat. I only bought a small amount of turkish delight and baklava, but we spent a lot of time chatting to them and they gave us free turkish coffee, sweets and compliments. I love this city.

After some walking around, Ximena bought some clothes and souvenirs, and we had a look at the University which is quite pretty.

But at 3.30pm we made sure we were back at the hotel, because we had a transfer organised to take us to the Sulleyman Hamam, one of the most popular Turkish Baths in Istanbul. Ximena and I went with two other girls, and if I come back again, this is my first stop.

It was so relaxing. After disrobing and adorning ourselves in the provided towels, we made our way to the steam room. It was a domed room covered in marble, lit only by small holes in the ceiling, so it was quite flattering light. There was a marble slab in the middle of the room to lie on. The room was not too hot, really comfortable but warm enough to induce sweating. The room was so warm that it was not long before the four of us were half asleep, letting the tensions of the tour sweat out of our tired muscles. After about 20 minutes, we were taken into little side rooms where half naked muscular men gave us a good 20 minute scrub down and massage. I was in heaven.

The rest of the afternoon is a bit of a blur to me, I was so relaxed that I went to bed early and had the best sleep ever.

Which was good, because it was back into tour mode the next day - we were off to...

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