BEAMET: Turkey - Istanbul

Ok so we arrived in Istanbul quite early on Monday morning. After some hassle trying to find an ATM, getting money (in large notes, as usual) and then trying to pay to go to the toilet (and the toilet chick's reluctance to change large notes... you get the picture....) we eventually managed to sort ourselves out and organise a metro token. Following the instructions in the Lonely Planet, we went the roundabout way from the Main bus station to Sultanahmet, where our hostel, Cordial House, was. Actually I've stayed there before, and its ok. Quite reasonable, and very well located - a few minutes walk from Aya Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome and all the main tourist sites.

We arrived there about 10 am and were promptly told we couldn't check in until 12 noon. So we had a coffee and then tried to figure out on the internet how we would get from Istanbul to Aleppo, Syria. Turns out that we were a day too late for the 1 train that would do it, but there was a tourist agency that would be able to help, and they were next to the Hippodrome - so off we went, to try and sort out our ongoing travel.

The guy there told us we could get a bus to Antakya (olden times Antioch) and then pick up another bus to Aleppo, but this was twice the price of a train to Gaziantep (aka Antep to the locals) and only 6 hours quicker. Well I'd rather have an overnight on a sleeper train, than in a bus - even a Turkish bus, which we all know is excellent, so we went for the train option, leaving 8.55am from Hayarpadasa (or something like this). This station is on the Asian side of Istanbul. That being booked, we headed off to do the one thing we really needed to do today - see Aya Sophia.

Agnieszka, like me, has been to Istanbul before, but unlike me, has not seen Aya Sophia. I figured, as I now have a camcorder (unlike the last time I was in Istanbul), I wouldn't mind seeing Aya Sophia again, so off we trot. Alas, on this occasion, yet again, for Agnieszka it was not to be. This is because - and I'm sure you've guessed it - like most Museums in Europe - today being Monday, it was closed. So we went off to the Blue Mosque instead, which was very nice, very blue inside, and then headed back to the hostel to check in, clean up - after our overnight bus experience plus the day at the beach you can be sure we smelt pretty, and I tried to sort out the laundry situation. Turns out that although Cordial House will do laundry, it has to be first thing in the morning, so hepointed me in the direction of a local laundromat. The guy there was very nice, spoke some Japanese too, so I practised up my Japanese a little bit. He assured me that the laundry would be done in a few hours and he would deliver it to the hostel.

So we then spent the afternoon wandering around Sultanahmet and the Grand Bazaar, as well as figuring out how long it would take us to get to Hayarpadasa the next morning. Fortunately didn't buy anything in the bazaar.

Agnieszka then went off to meet her friend for coffee whilst I went back at the hostel to check on the laundry and use the internet. I have to say their internet connection was slower than a wet week, and in the end I gave up after waiting 10 minutes for yahoo to load. I was quite upset to discover that the guy hadn't delivered our laundry, and now it was technically past his closing time, so I didn't hold much hope of being able to collect it - but I went to the laundromat anyway. It turns out they'd had a blackout, and it wasn't yet ready, come back in 30 minutes, yada yada. You know the story, came back in 30 minutes, so sorry, still not ready, 10 more minutes.... so I waited. He then came out and started chatting to me and the next thing I know, we're invited to go get pide (Turkish pizza - why couldn't he suggest baklava instead?) afterwards. Managed to get out of that one pretty quick, got the laundry and off I went back to the hostel.

After this it was a fairly uneventful evening as we got ready for the train the next day. In our room there were 2 young American girls, 2 Japanese girls and an old lady who didn't say too much (who was in the bunk above me). Everyone was actually quite antisocial (unusual for a hostel dorm room) and managed to get to bed at a reasonable hour in preparation for our early start the next day.

Finally, a chance to catch some quality (well maybe not, it is a hostel after all) much needed beauty sleep (MUCH needed...)