A great trip

We are back from our trip to Istanbul. That was something. First we had to wake up very early on Friday morning to catch a bus, then a coach to Luton airport to get our flight at 6.15 am - budget airlines are cheat but usual flying times are just stupid. We got a bit of sleep during the 4-hour flight to some small airport near Istanbul. Once landed and our visas sorted - actually being French I didn't need one :) - we had to take another coach - not again! - to reach the city center. It was in fact quite pleasant as we got a nice view of the city on the way.

Right, so here we are we thought. Job done! Well, not quite as we could not find a taxi driver who would understand the address of the hotel. Never mind, we decided to give the hotel a call to get directions. They told us to get this elusive 4T bus that we never found. So we ended up asking for help in another near-by hotel. The very nice person at the reception desk helped us finding a bus going to the area our hotel was located. After probably another 2 hours we finally made it to the hotel. WOOHOO!

We went to bed early that day so we could get up early the next. We started the next day with a visit of the Sultanahmet and the Haya Sofia (see picture above). These mosques are very pretty. We then decided to make our way towards to new city center (Taksim area) but stopped for a very nice meal on the way. Istanbul is really a huge city (more than twenty million people). We visited the Galata Tower and then went to the less historic and more lively areas near Taksim. There's a massive shopping street that leads to Taksim square with also lots of nice restaurants in the adjacent streets. We had a nice dinner there before deciding to go back to the hotel (now we knew which bus to take :).

Our last full day in Istanbul arrived so quickly with still so much to see and do. We started with a rather short visit to the Grand Bazaar. A very interesting place I would say. I like the atmosphere of all these people packed on these little streets. We then took a boat trip on the Bosphorus. It was OK but not as great as we expected it to be. With a few hours ahead of us we made our way back to the hotel area when we saw the entrance to this nargile / coffee shop. We went inside and had a smoke and a tea there while chatting with the brothers owning the place. A very relaxing experience. We then tried the Turkish bath. At first I wasn't too exited about the idea of having a big half-naked guy washing me but my girlfriend convinced me to try so we went. It was quite nice actually, I felt very clean afterwards :)

That concluded quite well our trip to Istanbul. Well, almost because we still had to go back to the airport and head back home. That proved a bit more challenging than expected. We actually didn't take the right coach and ended up at the wrong airport :( After panicking a little bit we found somebody who spoke English to help us and arranged a taxi for us. After some crazy driving from our taxi driver - or pilot I should say - we finally arrived at the correct airport and even on time for our plane. Phew!!
Now we're back in London with our memories and wishes to go back to this great city.