Day 5 - Istanbul - the suburbs

---

Our tourist activities have been a bit more free-form today than previous days. We had a late start today because nether of us woke up with the muezzin's call to prayer - we've obviously settled into the sounds of the neighbourhood. By the time we headed out it was after 10:00 and businesses were well and truly open. Terry found "seventh heaven" - a street full of tool shops. Obviously we had to stop and inspect the variety and quality of the goods for sale. This street was just before the Galata Bridge but because we've been so early on other mornings we had missed it.

After crossing the bridge it was off to purchase tickets on a ferry up the Golden Horn. Not quite the same as yesterdays cruise as we only went a few stops. We got off at a location called Ayvansaray. At this location the old city walls meet the Golden Horn and you can follow them for kilometres through to the Sea of Marmara. We decided that we would follow them as far as an old Byzantine church called the Chora Church. We never found the church so we don't know if we didn't walk far enough or just didn't recognise it.

We walked inland as far as the Edirnekapi Gate and had lunch at a local cafe by the main bus stop in the area. After lunch we followed the walls back to the Golden Horn before walking back towards 'home'. The area that we walked through seemed very poor although the kids in the streets were friendly and wanted to say hello and ask where we were from.

We walked back along the shores of the Golden Horn with the view of crossing at the Ataturk Bridge and then making our way back to the Galata Tower and home. Most of this went well until we needed to cross the road at the Ataturk Bridge. We managed to do this OK but only by crossing with some of the locals - there must have been about 10 lanes of traffic in all and we crossed in 3 goes. We aren't doing that again.

Tonight we stopped at a patiserrie near the Galata Tower for a drink and cake which was really just an excuse to have a look at the view.

---