Our Latest Adventure In Istanbul

For our next adventure we decided to go to Istanbul. There were 6 of us Margaret who organised the flights and hotel, Brendan, Mick, Dee, Pat myself and Ken. We went in September a great month to visit.

We flew from Izmir to Istanbul there we were picked up and taken to our hotel, there was a charge for the service.

We stayed at the hotel Novano in Sultanahmet that cost each couple 690lira for 4 night’s bed and breakfast. The hotel was very close to everything we wanted to visit.

The next day we had a walk about and went in the Blue Mosque which was only about 7 minutes from the hotel.
There is no charge to go in here but ladies have to be covered up and men have to wear trousers. There are plenty of restaurants and snack bar’s everywhere. The prices in these places where quite reasonable were as the bar prices were much more expensive.

On the third day we went to Ayasofya Museum. The entrance fee here was 25TL per person, this again was only a 10minute walk from where we were stopping. We then went for a walk down to the Bosporus and went in the spice market. At night time we found a nice traditional restaurant that we liked so we ate there and then had a walk around the centre.

The next day we went to Topkapi Palace this again was 25TL entrance fee. What a fantastic place to visit you could spend a full day here going to the harem and to see all the Jewellery and Armoury.

Mick, Dee, Brendan and myself said we would like to go on a boat trip on the. As Margaret and Pat do not like boats they decided to spend the day at the Grand Bazaar and then call in a local cake shop for a coffee and cake we would then all meet there later. Mick, Dee, Brendan and I went down to the Bosporus and went on a 2 hour boat trip it cost us 10TL each.

When we had finished the boat trip we hopped on one of the many trams they have that cost 3TL each, you had to get a token from where you were getting on, for 3TL you could stop on the tram for as long as you want.

The four days we spent in Istanbul were perfect as we got to see all we wanted to see and the hotel was very nice.

A trip I would highly recommend anybody to take.

Pat, Ken, Margaret, Brendan, Dee and Mick