Greetings from Istanbul. it took a while, but finally we arrived. The bus from Pamukkale took 13 hours, the longest bus ride I've ever taken. There's not a lot you can say about a 13 hour bus ride except that at GBP21 each it was excellent value, there was a waiter service, free snacks and soft drinks. There was a small tv screen on the back of the seats and there were decent movies showing. There was also a USB port that allowed us to charge the phones. The weather was awful all the way and the temperature dropped from 18 Dec C to 10 Deg C. by the time we got to Istanbul. In the early part of the ride we managed to see the great scenery of Turkey, the vast plateaus and the varying mountain ranges. The only comic relief came from a middle aged American couple who were on the first shuttle bus to Denizli. They ignored the advice of the booking agent to make sure that they & their luggage were on the shuttle 10 minutes before departure. They refused to listen and went off in search of food. they held up the shuttle by another 10 minutes. During the ride the lady announced that she was wondering if 'They' had put her bags on the bus. By Denizli it had become apparent that their bags were still outside the booking office in Pamukkale, probably getting very wet. As we left Denizli on the bus to Istanbul, she was standing in the rain causing merry hell with the Turkish Bus authorities. We waved her goodbye as we passed.

We had always wanted to arrive in Istanbul via the Bosphorous Sea...and as luck would have it, we actually did. The bus got on a transport ferry to save time. Grant and I took advantage and stood at the deckrail to watch the sea traffic in this very busy port. It was pouring with rain and the wind was howling. still, we're proud we stood there and saw it all.

We got into the world's second largest city (something I wasnt aware of) at 6am. there was a free shuttle but it was only heading in the general area of Fatih and was going to be another 30 minutes. We negotiated with a cabbie and had a 20 minute ride to the hotel for 30 lira ( 10 pound). Thankfully there was someone waiting for us to check in. The hotel is a bit of luxury for us, once again thanks to Mrs. Gibbs superb research back at Moonbase Alpha.

We,ve just had a 2 hour walk around this fascinating city and it is superb. The streets are cleaner than anything we've seen in western Europe. There has been no graffiti in Turkey at all. Turkey has been lucky to remain independent from the dreaded EU. Prices have also dropped considerably. We like Turkey.