Istanbul in Three Hours

I have never liked the idea of wasting several hours in an airport when one of the great cities of the world
is right there, just past the security fences and the motorway. It was for that reason that I vowed my long
lay-over in Istanbul was not going to consist of endless overpriced coffees and the constant battle against
sleep that one cannot afford when traveling alone as that is when they will 'ave your bags...

So, when I arrived in Istanbul this afternoon (local time, on British time it was still the morning), late and
very tired I wondered at the sense of leaving the oasis of calm and capitalism that is Attaturk Airport. Of course
that did not last long when I remembered the trouble a couple of people had gone to in giving me ideas to fill my
time in Turkey's old capital... Well that and the fact that like every other airport at any time of any day or night,
Attaturk appears to be infested with screaming children. I want to be charitable and concede that air travel must
seem pretty silly and pointless to most toddlers, but frankly I just don't want to put up with six hours of their
company, so my mind was made afresh.

I hopped in a cab, having first negotiated the fare (thanks for the tip nyarbagytep) and sped of to the
Sultanahmet, the ancient heart of the European side of Istanbul, or should I really say Constantinople - I mean is
it a Marathon and Snickers kind of thing? Anyway, as we drove along the coast road into Istanbul I could feel the
tension of air travel slipping away, to be replaced by my mortal fear of being killed in a pile of twisted metal,
but a stone's throw from Asia. I'm not saying that my cab driver was a bad driver, but he needed more hands for all
of the things he was doing as well as driving - talking on his mobile, smoking, drinking bottled water and gesticulating
wildly as he quizzed me on my home and what I though of Istanbul and Turkey. I want to be able to say with an acerbic
manner that on hearing I was from Manchester he responded with the international response of "Manchester United; very good!",
but thankfully I got a dumbfounded face and so simply let him down easy with "near to London...". "Oh London! Good! Good!".

Anyway, he dropped me in the heart of the Sultanahmet between The Blue Mosque (which, dear reader, is unique in the world
on account of its six minarets) and the Agia Sophia, which is closed on Mondays - bugger! Anyway I wandered, took some
snaps and allowed myself to be wooed into one carpet shop (by a very nice fellow who gave me the snippet about The Blue
Mosque) and one jewelery shop by a very accomplished soft/friendly salesman who was concerned for my constitution in the
deepening cold. I did spend some money, on myself an on a little something for my parents - they are putting me up in
Cyprus after all - but after that I developed a killer blow to all of the other potential 'friends' I met who just had
to show me their carpets - "I'm sorry, but I've run out of money." It's amazing how utterly effective that one is!

Anyway, I rounded off my mini tour with the best doner kebab I have ever tasted (it was not shaved penguin, you could
see the lumps of meat of meat on the skewer, which was immensely comforting), and now I sit here in the bar of the "Citadel"
Hotel looking out over the Bosphorous Straits, eyeing up Asia and thinking that next time I will actually book a hotel and
give myself the better part of two days so that I can get onto the Asian side of the city and perhaps do a better degree
of justice to the Sultanahmet - being in time for the opening hours of the museums would be a start!

Anyway, I shall finish my beer and hop in a cab, I hope that you are all well in Blighty and Beyond and look forward to
reporting on the joys of Kyrenia and its environs in the next few days...

Schlaf Gut LJ-land.

..:: EDIT ::..

Shortly after I finished the above it began snowing. I spent the entire cab journey to the airport worrying that the plane
would be delayed or canceled or something similar. Thankfully good sense has prevailed here at Attaturk Airport and the
fact that the snow has neither settled nor continued has deflected the powers that be away from any precipitous action...

So I am going to tuck into some "Chicken Lolitas" and treat myself to a Romeo y Julietta Purito, as it seems that smoking is
somewhat inextricably linked to the traveling experience for me and it was either that or buy 200 Davidoff Magnums and simply
fumigate myself until my flight... Ta ta!