Exploring the city of Istanbul

After a leisurely breakfast on the terrace of our hostel, we made our way into the old city. First stop was to the Aya Sofya aka Haghia Sophia Museum. Very impressive inside with the lighting and building architecture. Next we found another queue and headed into the Blue Mosque. Aaron kept us entertained with his blue cloak and blue skirt, haha! Many tourists were using the mosque as a refugee to rest their already weary legs. Last pit stop for the morning was the underground cisterns, 70m x 120m. It was very impressive and kind of eerie. We managed to find the two medusa heads located at the north west corner ( well maybe the hordes of people heading in that direction helped!)

Whilst wandering the streets we were approached umpteen times for tour books, bus tours and bottles of water. It really wouldn't be a touristy city if that didn't happen. Overall thus far the locals have been friendly, helpful and quick witted.

On the to do list was to indulge in a kebab! This mission was successfully accomplished and would surely become part of my staple diet whilst tour Turkey!! (nom nom nom!)

The afternoon was spent leisurely walking through the grand bazaar, where it is quite easy to lose your sense of direction in the mazes of streets. Nothing particularly jumped out and said 'buy me!' but the variety of mannequins we came across certainly had me stopping and taking photographs. The first time I've seen mannequins come in all shapes and sizes.

Our evening was spent in typical hostel style on the terrace, chilaxing with local beer and a deck of cards. One of the employees dogs ( a teeny, tiny King Charles) provided endless entertainment and the best cuddles. As the evening went all and our tummies began to grumble, secretly all of us had been craving a corn on a cob which were being sold on the streets. So we headed out to enjoy the evening ambience and munch away our cravings. Little did we know that our hopes were instantly crushed as soon as we took our first bite. Note to others: don't buy the grilled corn take the boiled option. All 3 of us agreed it had to be the least sweetest and driest corn we had ever tasted. It certainly had us chuckling for the next half hour, even though it tasted awful we couldn't help but munch away on it. That night as I laid in my bed finding the odd piece of corn stuck between my teeth! ( Yes I did brush my teeth) I thought 'Turkey is certainly going to be an awesome country to explore!' Let the road trip begin!!