Istanbul

We've made it.  The trip from New Zealand went according to plan, and we arrived feeling not too jet-lagged.  Found the cheap bus service that took us direct from the airport to quite close to our hotel near Taksim Square.  There is quite a cluster of large hotels in the area, and it is also close to a huge convention centre, which will be the venue for the conference Sue attends this week.

The Dubai Airport terminal is huge (three terminals actually, linked by a driverless shuttle train) but for some reason our flight to Istanbul departed from a distant corner of the airfield far from the terminal.  We rode in a big fat bus (much too big to go on the roads) for about twenty minutes before it pulled up beside our plane, which we boarded up steps in the way things used to be.  As we stepped out of our air-conditioned bus we discovered it was about 45 degrees outside.  It only took a minute to get up the steps into the plane, but I don't think I would have lasted much longer.

So far Istanbul seems to be mix of old and new, but there are more signs of neglect than in the more affluent countries of Europe.  The footpath to our hotel starts out narrow, then almost peters out completely!

No room for passing!

The trams are modern and air-conditioned (see next posting), but there are mangy looking cats all over the place, who sit beside your chair looking pleadingly at you while you eat your lunch.

Istanbul cats

There are some very large mosques about, and that's not counting the famous Blue Mosque which we haven't seen yet.  Looking out across the city you can numerous minarets on the skyline.