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 day in Istanbul. Seeing them for a second time hones in just how incredible these places are, the Aya Sofya especially.

I meandered down to the Karakoy docks and spotted a ferry bound for the distant suburb of Eyup, deep in European Istanbul. Eyup is towards the end of the Golden Horn, a once polluted estuary that splits the European half of Istanbul but now has been the centre of Istanbul's economic boom spurring a regeneration.

On the bitterly cold ferry trip up the Golden Horn we passed military barracks of empires gone by and some fabulously ornate Greek Orthodox churches. Once in Eyup I made it to a nearby mosque, which is supposedly one of the holiest sites in Islam. It's so holy it's got its own circumcision centre.

After wondering around a graveyard-park bit and getting a bit lost I made it back to Eyup and had one of the best meals in Turkey. I had an 'Urfa Kebap' - hailing from the Southeast Turkish city of Sanliurfa (where Top Gear passed through in their Middle East special). A really tasty string of lamb, wrap and a weird but nice not quite corn not quite rice thing...

I missed the ferry back down the Golden Horn by 10minutes and there wasn't another one for an hour, so I made by way back down by foot. It got a bit tedious, 'local life' tends to only be interesting when it's markedly different from your own 'local life' and Istanbul really isn't as far from Europe culturally as many would have you believe.

I did stumble across the ancient city walls which were intriguing, and had a break from some Turkish Coffee...which was disgustingly sweet and thick...

After dumping some stuff in the hostel I made my way to the Grand Bazaar to do a) some currency exchanging as the pound is liable to drop with the Brexit vote between now and my trip to Ukraine and b) a bit of christmas shopping. Shhh....

I then, having made way full circle back to the Eminomu docks where I had begun, stumbled across a Bosphorous Cruise. It was an agonising wait in the cold for it to get going (the hawkers had forgotten to mention that it wasn't leaving for 40minutes when I got on...) but once it did it was spectacular.

I'd seen most of the palaces and castles lining the Bosphorous in the daylight, but at night all lit up they were something even more special. It was bone-chillingly cold but the sun today meant there was a gorgeous sunset yet again over Istanbul's ancient skyline.

I'm in two minds leaving Istanbul. Looking back it's been an incredibly packed 3 days, I've probably walked about 30km at least. On the one hand I'm exhausted, not just because of the size of Istanbul but also being a tourist in Turkey can be hard work. You blend in too much here! People keep coming up to me speaking in Turkish and thinking am a bit special when I can't reply. Turks don't really correspond with the olive skinned stereotype, most Istanbullers I've seen are pale although I must admit - I definitely blend in more when my hood is covering my blonde hair...

Istanbul is a very easy city to get around, and has in spite of the cold such a brilliant outdoors lifestyle. The food is very bread heavy though... I needed to load my Istanbulkart (Istanbul's oyster card) so I broke a 50 lira note and had some street food at 4. It filled me up until 8, the food is so rich and starchy.

Istanbul would be a tough but also very interesting place to live, a place that would be challenging but very rewarding to 'master' per se. There are so many places I've had to leave out or pass by in spite of how packed my time has been. I may very likely be back. We'll see. Anyway, here's to Ukraine!

Laters...