We woke up and got ready today before walking down to sultanahmet where we were meeting Lena and Birkan and found a seat in the shade. I bought a pretzel type bread ring to snack on while we waited then saw them get off the tram. We walked together down the road to the basilica cistern, where we lined up in the surprisingly small line to get tickets then went down the stairs. It was amazing! The whole cavern type area was filled with huge pillars, with about a foot or so of water covering the ground. The first section of water was lit up with red lights, and there were heaps of massive fish swimming all around, some were so big they hardly fit in the water anymore! It was very beautiful, with the pillars all in a row and reflecting in the water! We walked around the walkways having a look at the place, which was massive. If you've ever wondered what it looks like underneath Istanbul now you know! We walked past a huge pillar decorated with tear drops, but I can't remember what it represented, then went around the back to where they had two giant stone blocks with Medusa heads on them, one upside down and one on its side. They apparently were brought there in ancient times from some other temples, and were placed this way deliberately but the reason for this is unknown. We wandered around and got lots of cool photos before heading back upstairs and exiting, after having a browse through the gift shop. Once we left, we headed back around the corner, where we went to a little kofte restaurant that Birkan recommended. Koftes here are like meatballs, but oval-shaped, and they had only two dishes on the menu, kofte and shish kebab, as well as a range of salads. Birkan ordered for us, and Lena and I ate some rice, beans and salad and the boys had some kofte, which is apparently one of the best koftes around! We also got a salty yoghurt drink, which was interesting, and actually worked surprisingly well with the meal. The place was absolutely packed, and by the time we were done and headed out, there was a line out the door and to the next shop! Lucky we got there when we did! We headed down to the tram stop, topped up our transport card then jumped on a tram to Eminonu station, then after walking through the very crowded streets and past the bridge, jumped on a bus and started heading up along the river. We had a bit of a miscommunication about which stop to get off at, so when we arrived at what I thought was the right one, Lena and I jumped off, and the boys followed us looking confused! Apparently we'd gotten off way too early! Oops! It was a beautiful day though, so we decided we'd go for a walk along the water for a while. After walking a bit, we passed a man walking with his shoe-shine box, who dropped one of his brushes. We called out to him, and he realised he'd dropped it, and was so thankful that he set up his stool right there on the footpath and shined Lena's shoes! Then he did Darren's converse tips, (which didn't look too much cleaner in the end) then asked for some money! We thought it was free because we told him about his brush! Oh well, lesson learnt! We gave him a few coins each and continued on our walk. We wandered for about another hour or more, past parks, fishing boats and fishermen, some kind of fair with rides that was being set up, and all the way along the river until we came to the bend in the river where we turned off and went through a little part of town and grabbed some cold drinks. From there we walked up the street a little bit more to where they had a cable car to the top of the hill. But the line for it was ridiculous. So instead we decided to try to get onto a little peninsula we'd seen on the river so we could watch the sunset from there instead of on the hill, but after wandering along the river a bit further we found out it was an island, so we couldn't get to it! So we gave up and found a spot on the grass in a park that had a patch of the last remaining sun for the day! It was good to sit down! We had a chat and a laugh with each other while we watched a group of kids trying to get a ball down that had gotten stuck up a tree. They were throwing another ball up to try to knock the first one down, and as soon as Darren said something along the lines of "imagine if the other one got stuck up there too!", the other one got stuck on the next throw! So funny! So they started throwing a block of wood up, and after quite a while the second ball came back down, and everyone except one boy and his dad left. They must have just been trying to help out, but decided against it after their ball got stuck too!! So after watching for a bit longer, and after the block of wood also got stuck up there, Darren and Birkan went over to help them out. They hunted down rocks to throw up, and after a while, they eventually got it down! Everyone cheered and the boy got to go home happy. After a bit longer chilling on the grass, the sun went behind the trees and it started getting a bit chilly in the shade, so we got up and walked to the closest bus stop and got on a bus back to Eminonu. I couldn't believe how far we had walked while watching the bus make its way down the road! Crazy! By the time we got back, the sun had set and it was dark, but the spice market across the road was going off! There were people everywhere! We went over and went into a lokum shop (Turkish Delight shop) where we had a chat to the workers and got a whole bunch of taste tests of different types of lokum! They were so yummy! The best one though, was a honey one, which was covered in pistachios! Mmmmmm! So we bought a log of that, then ended up for some reason buying one whole kilogram of mixed lokum squares as well! So many lokums!!! After we made our purchases, we headed back over to the tram, where we said goodbye to our friends as they were heading the other way, then got on a tram back to Gülhane and our hostel. When we arrived, they hadn't started cooking dinner yet, so we didn't feel guilty about cancelling that to go and try the Indian restaurant up the road! So we used the wifi in our room for a little while then went for a walk for 10 minutes or so to Swaad, the restaurant. We had a pretty delicious meal there. And Darren got an interesting korma, made just of cashew sauce, which is apparently the traditional way of making it, then we walked back to the hostel, looking through a few gift shops for stickers as we went, but didn't find any. When we got back to the room, we watched a pretty good movie called Dreaming With The Fishes, before going to sleep.