Taking it to the streets

So we are walking down through the Galata district of Istanbul after dark when all this music erupts from a shop selling instruments; and whether it was planned or impromptu we found that some of the stock was just being used by a group of guys to hammer out some terrific Turkish sounds with clarinets, strings and drums ...which was just fantastic to hear and to see. The proprietor was making sales and dancing at the same time, ducking under the neck of a guitar as he went. Great fun. There is a whole street where every third shop sells musical instruments or records or something musical ... 

As for the rest:

So we had a very lazy start which included chatting to some fellow tourists and being last out of the hotel breakfast room. Long chat with the lovely Mujlan in the hotel lobby about where to go, what to do and where to eat (her restaurant recommendation was excellent by the way). If you ever go to Istanbul, The Sultania is an absolutely lovely hotel with the friendliest of staff, and incredibly good for the sights in the old city (but really well connected by tram to everywhere else). We're loving' it.

So took the tram to the Dolmabache Palace, TSM wussing on about the rain (which was hardly anything) and the wind (which was hardly a breeze). The Palace is immense and all done with guided tours but quite amazing despite that. I forget how many rooms there are but you could probably  use a different one each weekday for a year if you lived there and not do the same one twice (I kid you not). 

From there we went back up to Taksim and had coffee in a really nice coffee shop, mainly students and very friendly. Minor moment of amusement here as TSM went into Catwoman mode when she heard a moggy wailing in what sounded like terrible pain a few yards away - the look on her face was priceless. Actually it was just agitating for food.

Then we shopped, then we ate, in the Ficcin restaurant which was absolutely brilliant, great food if you don't eat meat. The staff are reserved but very nice, and again it was incredibly cheap.

More shopping - this bit of Istanbul is great for that, lots of cheap clothes, and lovely atmospheric side streets. Then down to the Galata Tower which has some stunning views over the city. The whole of the south side of the city was just a blaze of brightly lit mosques and bridges and ocean liners lit from end to end. 

Then pudding and more drinks in another lovely restaurant, The Pepo, which did me an amazing chocolate brownie (although musically it was, as they say, in the lowest quartile of performance; but at least we didn't get another rendition of that Mary Hopkin classic "Those were the days my friend").

Came back to Gulhane, had coffee somewhere locally, then back to the hotel. Feel like we've really discovered the streets of this city again today, it's been great. A fab week ....