Cats everywhere!

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Well, first blog entry ever, what to say?

Dee and I have been in Istanbul for four days now, it's our last night here tonight although we don't leave until the evening tomorrow. Life in Istanbul is so different to anything I've seen in Western Europe (perhaps unsurprisingly?). The streets are so busy, so full! Especially in the bazaar district where instead of shops allowing customers into their store to view their wares the shopkeepers take their wares right out into the narrow streets - every available bit of wall/door space is covered in bags or clothes or shoes or gadgets or whatever that shop happens to sell, and there is barely room to avoid the shopkeers showing you more things let alone squeeze past all the other customers!

The mosques are so beautiful, such intricate patterns covering every space of wall inside, and they make a very striking skyline! We sat in the courtyard of one mosque yesterday during midday prayers, watching people prepare to go in to the service. Friday midday prayers are the most important for Muslim men, and I don't know if the fact that it was a festival also made a difference, but it was certainly busy. The service was broadcast over the whole area on speakers - we both thought the first guy sounded quite zealous, shouting the whole sermon, but he was followed by quieter guys leading a prayer and another sermon who sounded much more reasonable. We also agreed that, although beautiful, we didn't think the atmosphere in the mosques lived up to that of cathedrals.

I won't tell all here, but needless to say we've seen some historic sights, my favourite of which was a vast underground cistern for storing water, the Basilica Cistern, dating from the 6th century. I'll upload a couple of photos at some point, I don't have the wire for the camera on me right now. We took a boat-trip out to Prince's Islands today in the Sea of Mamara - a very popular weekend getaway for local tourists it seems - standing room only on the ferries! But peaceful on the islands none-the-less, I can see why they are popular.

After the first couple of nights staying in the quiet, touristy old town, we are now staying across the river in the new town, an area called Taksim. The nightlife doesn't stop here it is so busy and lively all through the night! the side streets are all crammed full of cafes and bars and loud music. I'm looking forward to finding a little table to play backgammon on whilst surrounded by partiers, and having a few drinks. We didn't go to a club last night, just wandered around and went to a couple of bars, but I can definitely recommend this as a good night out for anyone city-hopping for the clubs and nightlife!

Not sure what our plans are for tomorrow yet we'll decide over breakfast, but we fly on to Beirut in the evening so my next post will be from there!

I'm thinking of you all back home and hope I'm making you all jealous :P

Andy xx


PS, to explain the title of this post - there are stray cats (and a few dogs) all over the place here! Apparently they are fairly highly-regarded in Islam so they are tolerated and generally allowed to do as they please. Round every corner there is another cat or three!

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