Spice Market

After the programme we'd been running finished we headed down to the centre of Istanbul.

Despite being here twice before, I'd not had chance to explore the city at all.

We got out of the taxi opposite the "New Mosque" next to the Galata Bridge.

The bridge is featured in the opening sequences of Skyfall, the latest James Bond film.

We explored the Bazaar behind the Mosque. Lots of narrow bustling streets and stalls. We didn't have time to head up the hill into the Grand Bazaar, the scene of the rooftop motorbike chase in Skyfall. Maybe next time.

After that we found a resturant on the Galata Bridge where we had a lovely meal.
Large prawns and various other starters and a main dish of Red Snapper baked in salt. It was all delicious.
After the meal we went to a bar next door that had some local lads playing music on guitar, drum machine and traditional reed flutes.

After a couple of beers we wandered up to the top deck of the bridge to look at all the fishermen lining the bridge. at night there are probably only 50 or so. During the day there must be between 500 and 1000, wedged shoulder to shoulder.



The taxi driver took us back to the wrong hotel, despite our protestations. He then took us to the right hotel and attempted to charge us double the correct fare.

We weren't too woried while he was taking us through all the wrong parts of town as we were keeping to major routes that were busy and well lit. We also knew roughly were we were, in relation to were we should have been!

If he'd headed somewhere a bit more off the beaten track we would have been a lot more worried.

It pays to keep your wits about you when travelling!

At the correct hotel, Phil kept him busy while Bruce and I went inside, "to get some change".

We returned with the fare he should have charged us and the hotel's Head of Security, who promptly told the taxi driver to (in very curt and abrupt Turkish) "shut up and do one!"