First and foremost, if you ever want to go on a trip where your main purpose is eating, I highly suggest Istanbul. Turkish food, actual Turkish food, not just some kebab place found in West London, is the best I've ever tasted; it even trumps that of the Cafes of Paris and the hole in the wall Pizza places in Rome. LonelyPlanet called it a 'gastronomical orgasm' and I fully stand by that. The mezze plates were always fresh, and you never had the same item more than once; I never knew there were that many types of humous! The lamb was flavourful. The coffee was a little bit of sweetened heaven; that is, if heaven were to have an IV drip filled with caffeine jabbed into its arm. The baklavah was flakier and sweeter than I have ever tasted (sorry Grandma, I think this may be the one and only time when I will EVER say I found something you make, made better). All in all, the food was well worth the amount of money we probably spent (and even that didn't even come CLOSE to compare to Rome and Paris).
Moving on to the actual sights in Istanbul. If you ever wondered what it was like, imagine taking Oxford Street or Madison Ave. and mashing it together with images from '1,000 Arabian Nights' or Disney's 'Aladin'. One moment you are walking down a cobble stone street with shops ranging from Monsoon and The Gap and the next thing you know you're hearing the Call To Prayer from the surrounding Mosques as you enter into one of the many side street bazaars and are being pulled in every direction to buy a carpet or a puter Turkish coffee maker. Women in Hijab and full length burkas juxtapose women carrying Louis Vuitton purses and wearing Burberry jackets. Everywhere you go has a different smell: spices, onions, honey, incense, petrol, shit--sometimes mixed and sometimes completely separate. Listening to the shouts from the bazaars drown out the noise from jackhammers coming from the adjacent buildings. The sound of continual progress and growth. The people could not be more hospitable and willing to bend over backwards to ensure you are comfortable and have what you need. That is, until you meet a cab driver who realises he has two obvious foreigners in his back seat who have no idea where they are in the city; our second cab ride, costing us 25 TL should have only been 10 TL max. With that said, everyone needs to make a living and the exchange rate was in our favour.
All in all Adam and I had a fabulous time. It was a great way to spend our one year, Valentines Day weekend and the start to my half term. We saw most of the main sights: Blue Masque, Aya Sophie, Grand Bazaar, Spice Bazaar, Asia (from the European side), and a few other places that I can't remember off the top of my head. I would highly recommend this trip to anyone who is looking for a slightly different experience to that of Western Europe.
