Istanbul

We were instantly surprised by how modern, clean and cosmopolitan Istanbul seemed when we got there. There is an efficient tram and metro system, incredible buildings everywhere, and more tourists than I've ever seen before! We were staying right next to the Blue Mosque, so right next to about 800 other attractions too. The only bad thing about this was knowing what we were going to miss, as we only had a couple of days. We did manage to see the Blue Mosque though, and the Archaeological Museum, the Grand Bazaar, the Egyptian Bazaar, the Spice Market, and the massively overpriced Galata Tower. I'd recommend everything else, especially the Spice Market, where you can buy a million types of tea, natural sea sponges, teapots, Turkish delight, and of course lots of spices. But the Galata Tower offers the same views we got from a bridge walking home from the Galata Tower, except it's only open until early evenings, has long queues and an entry fee. We'd been told that Istanbul is the gateway to the East, and that upon crossing the bridge we'd find a huge difference between East and West, but actually, we found it hard to tell any difference at all. We really loved Istanbul, especially the small cafes where we ate Corba, Menemen and rice. It is full of amazing buildings packed with interesting things, but as so many other people are also keen to see them, unless you want to spend most of your time in queues, you need a few weeks to see even just the main sights.