It's a small world after all

Istanbul is a city split between 2 continents; the Old and New cities sit on the European side, and Asia begins just across the narrow gap of the Bosphorus river, which leads down from the Black Sea. Perhaps influenced perhaps by too many Agatha Christie novels, I was expecting a city of exotic mysticism and faded fin-de-cicle elegance. Instead I found a very modern, friendly city, of course proud of it's heritage, but very much looking forward to the future.

I met Dad at the airport on Sunday afternoon, before we headed off to find our hotel. I had this fantasy of waking up on my birthday to breakfast looking over the Blue Mosque - and the photo above is taken from the hotel terrace! Just perfect.

The next couple of days were spent wandering the city visiting the various mosques and palaces, dodging carpet sellers in the grand bazzar, cat-spotting and eating a lot of pudding.

Oh, and I'm not the only one seeing the similarity - as we were sitting in front of the Blue Mosque, a van drove past and a person yelled out, "Hey! It's Disneyland!"