Our excitement about the swish and comfortable bus we were travelling in from the Iraq-Turkey border was short-lived, as half way to Diyarbakir we switched buses and we were now travelling in a tiny version of said coach, which looked like some sort of community bus for the elderly. This certainly seemed to encourage the community spirit among the passengers however, who were all very friendly and who we got talking to at a rest stop (those who spoke English anyway), and soon we were all swapping emails and Facebook details. It was an interesting journey to Diyarbakir - we saw lots of military outposts and looking at the map, we guessed that the road we were travelling on was parallel to the Syrian border. This was confirmed by the bus driver, and from then on we were glued to the window - as if expecting to see the war in action or thousands of refugees scrambling over the hills into Turkey. It was hard to believe we were so close to the border of such a war-torn country - a bit like when we were in Iraq - as the surroundings were so serene, with all the yellow fields dotted with dark green shrubs, more reminiscent of Tuscany.

We spent one night in Diyarbakir, before heading to Antalya the following afternoon. Despite our excitement at feeling nearer home / Europe, in reality Diyarbakir and it's surrounds are still very much more east than west, and very different to western Turkey. We were now in the Kurdish region of South East Anatolia, and Diyarbakir is one of the most important cities to the Kurds, with the people here known to being particularly proud of their Kurdish identity. Like the Kurdish people we had come across in Iran and Iraq, everyone we met was so friendly, and all call themselves Kurdish over Turkish or Iraqi.

We had the morning to explore Diyarbakir, which we spent walking round the city walls and gates, the main feature of the city. They say that the circuit of walls date back to Roman times, and the present walls from early Byzantine times (AD 330-500)...and there is still enough of the wall left to allow you to circumnavigate the city on top of the walls and get some great views. We stopped at a former 'caravanserai', where camel caravans and merchants would rest while travelling the Silk Road. It was built in 1527, and at the time had capacity for 800 camels, as well as housing 72 rooms and 17 shops. It is now a hotel, so still fulfilling the same purpose, just minus the camels. We just had time for a quick visit to the city mosque, tea in the main square and a chicken kebab for lunch before we had to catch our internal flight to Antalya...where a very different Turkey awaited us.

For those that don't know, Antalya is the largest Turkish city on the Mediterranean coast - at once very modern but also very beautiful thanks to the well-preserved ancient district of Kaleici, a Roman-era harbour with a historic old town full of old Ottoman houses, which are now stylish hotels, restaurants and bars. This is where we stayed and we absolutely loved it, not really venturing into the modern part of Antalya although all the shopping malls we passed on the way in were somewhat tempting! Our budget didn't quite stretch to one of Antalya's gorgeous boutique hotels, but we were very pleased with ourselves when we found a self-catering, poolside apartment belonging to the Sabah Guesthouse, which with lots of space, our own living room and washing machine felt like a luxury suite compared to some recent accommodation (specifically referring to the bed bugs we encountered in Erbil). You may laugh at what excites us these days, but having our own washing machine to do our own laundry (eg not pay for it) was a pretty exciting novelty ;)

We spent five days in Antalya doing very little, very happily - the fact that we were on the Mediterranean coast with a pool in spitting distance totally took away the 'we're travellers not tourists' notion or any desire to explore much, and we spent our time blissfully happy by the pool or on the little harbour beach, and occasionally wandering around the old town which had the most gorgeous setting overlooking the Gulf of Antalya . The weather was perfect, unusually warm for the end of October, and it felt (in our minds anyway) that it had been a while since we'd spent some time doing nothing, since a week in August in Cambodia...at least that's how we justified it! It was a gorgeous few days and it was difficult to remember that we weren't just there on a short holiday, and very tempting to blow the budget on lots of red wine and yummy food....though we did have one 'splurge' night at the best (Italian) restaurant in town, when Simon bet me a swanky meal that I wouldn't be able to jump into our pool (it was absolutely breath-takingly freezing) ...unlucky for him, he didn't count on my stubborn determination when there's good pizza and wine as the prize, ha!! Would highly recommend Antalya to anyone, there is lots to explore (so we are told!) and the setting is simply gorgeous.

Our final stop was Istanbul, where really three nights was not enough to do it justice but enough to get a taste of such a fantastic city. We stayed in a basic apart-hotel near Taksim Square, the square which saw a lot of unrest and disputes earlier in the year over controversial plans to develop the park area into a shopping centre. While trying to find our hotel the evening we arrived, we took a wrong turn down a side road which suddenly felt very dodgy - badly lit, unsavoury characters huddling over little fires, and very dilapidated buildings. Once back on the right street and in our hotel, we asked the man working there if it was a safe area...he said 'yes', but then also 'there was a wedding yesterday and only one fight broke out', and 'even I feel scared' - I think he was trying to reassure us but it didn't really work! We nicknamed it the Bronx but actually it was fine, despite our initial reservations.

We spent two full-on days trying to see as much of Istanbul as we could fit in: wandering through the Beyoglu neighbourhood (lots of funky shops, bars, restaurants etc); the historic Galata neighbourhood and tower; into Sultanahmet (south of the Bosphorous) where a lot of the big-ticket sites are - the Blue Mosque, the Topkepi Palace, and the Aya Sofia - the former has to be the most impressive religious building (with matching dome) I have ever seen. The Blue Mosque (official name: Sultan Ahmet Camii) was also amazing - despite having had our fill of impressive, blue-tiled mosques in Iran, this was on another scale, and so beautiful. We squeezed in a Bosphorous Boat Cruise one evening - touristy but had to be done - and very much worth it: in the late afternoon sun, all of Istanbul's mosques and minarets looked like something out of an Arabian fairy-tale. Sailing down the Bosphorous with Europe and Asia either side of you is a rare moment!

Our last day in Istanbul happened to coincide with Turkey's Republic Day (29th October) a national holiday to commemorate the declaration of Turkey as a republic- there was an unusually large amount of Turkish flags flying in the city, but the biggest event for us was that this meant the city's famous Grand Bazaar was shut for the day! Still, we'd probably had our fill of bazaars by then, and also another reason to have to come back. We also noticed growing crowds of people gathering for processions around the city, in light of the national day, and there were equally large amounts of riot police congregating, and it all felt like it was all about to kick off in our faces at one point (tension was palpable, lots of angry shouts at police) but luckily it didn't amount to more than a bit of pushing and shoving. I can only think it was such a heavy police presence which seemed to make things escalate…I asked three different people why there were so many riot police around, all replying 'because of the national day', if that was normal for public holidays, with only one expanding to say it was because they were worried about unrest and dissent among the crowds, after what had happened in the summer. It certainly gave the day an interesting edge! We loved Istanbul though, such a great city and fascinating mix of east-meets-west, and you feel like you are transported into an Arabian fairy tale at every turn.