We had forgotten how much we had loved Istanbul!In 2005 we spent a week in Turkey and here we are back again just for one night and as the bus takes us to our hostel, we are already thinking we wish we had planned for a few more days here.Istanbul is all charm and commerce, mosques and museums. It is carpet salesmen offering tea (no obligation of course!) and sidewalk cafes with lounge chairs and sheisha pipes. Our hostel is right in the historic cobblestone stre...

A gruelling 12 hour bus trip overnight is the cheapest way to get to Cappadocia but it was worth it! We had an hour to freshen up from the bus trip before commencing a full day tour. When the travel agent had booked us for 2 full day tours in Cappadocia we wondered why but as the scenery and things to see unfolded, 2 days was not even enough! The landscape is Turkey's most amazing sight. Over the centuries a thick layer of volcanic tufa has been eroded into ...

Another series of local buses took us to Kusadasi, a resort town reasonably close to the ancient site of Ephesus which was on our "want to do" list for Turkey. The Temple of Artemis is one of The Original Seven Wonders Of The Ancient World. It took us all day long to get there only arriving in Kusadasi at nightfall. The next day we were picked up for a full day guided tour of Ephesus. The city, founded around 3,000 BC originally was a centre of worship for the An...

Back in Istanbul just for a day we made the most of it by going on a cruise up the Bosphorus waterway to see Istanbul from the water. we then visited the famous Blue Mosque and the bazaars before getting ready to take a night bus to Cappadocia. Love the vibe of Istanbul.Footnote: The Historic Areas of Istanbul are UNESCO World Heritage listed.

After arriving back in Paris (overnight train from Liechtenstein) we had one last night, then left early the next day for London on our last leg of our Busabout ticket. A night in central London near the airport bus station for Gatwick gave us some sleep before starting a busy travel day to Istanbul.  We arrived in Istanbul rather tired and aware that we needed to be up early the next day (and every day after that!) so didn't really look around Istanbul thi...