I had a vague plan to go to the Black Sea town of Vize today, about 3 hours out of Istanbul which would have meant a v early start. However, somebody decided to play the guitar until midnight and there´s some hipster muezzins nearby who kept me awake until 1 which meant getting up at 7 or so wasn't happening. I decided to wander back to the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya I saw on Thursday, but this time enjoy them in the bright blue sunshine of this crisp winter's d...

Last night was a bit of a mare. I was very worn out and couldn't be asked to go on a search for a cheap local restaurant so I settled for one of the touristy ones in the Kumkapi Square just outside my hostel. I got ripped off. 10pounds for some meh calamare and yoghurt on bread. Ridiculous. Not having much luck with food here in Turkey to be honest, all a bit overpriced or a bit meh. It took an absolute age to finally get to sleep because of people coming in a...

Istanbul truly is one of the world's greatest cities. Sat on the bridge between Europe and Asia, even on a drizzly, windy December day it's still an utterly fantastic city to explore. I set out after a free breakfast of turkish cheese on bread with a cherry tomato and splash of olives, negotiating a 'path' by the side of a motorway... I was making my way around the Sultanhamet peninsula, the epicentre of Ottoman and Byzantine power when both those great empires...

We were late out of Heathrow because a cargo company worker decided to carelessly dump sump boxes behind our plane meaning we were 45minutes late for take off... Once on the British Airways flight it was... mind-numbingly dull. The 3 hour flight is long enough so you get bored but short enough for BA to use a crampt plane with no TVs etc. We landed in Istanbul, shrouded in fog under a deluge. Migration was a tad hectic, now probably one of very few people on Ea...