Turkish coffee, Turkish baths,

Photos of Istanbul

Turkish bread, Turkish delight - seems like everything good comes from Turkey - and it certainly has been a pleasure to the senses already.

The first 12 hours on the bus was fairly agonising - surrounded by surly Czechs and Bulgarians I was questioning why on earth would I be so stupid as to travel alone, knowing that I much prefer doing things as part of a team. I got some sleep during the night and was feeling substantially better when we pulled into Sofia around 8am. They threw us all off the bus and disappeared, I scratched my head for a moment wondering how I was supposed to get to Istanbul now. So I went to the bus company office with my ticket and enquired about my onward journey. There was a bus leaving to Istanbul at 9am and the woman would show from where. At 8:55am I pleaded with her to show me where the bus left from. So only now(!), she writes me another ticket and tells me to go to another office before going to Sektor 9 for my bus 'and run, it leaves in two minutes'..... I KNOW!!! I ran, I got my bus, I took a sleeping pill, I am in Istanbul.

The keyboards in this hostel are bad and the internet slow, so I am labouring at the moment.

On arrival I threw myself into a shower then went to the roof of the hostel for a spaghetti and a beer where I met a Canadian bloke with a love of going to dangerous places and doing crazy things - on day three of a two year adventure, awesome.

I spent yesterday eating my way around the cultural/historic centre of Istanbul, Sultanahmet and surrounding areas, wıth Gaz and Louise, then spent the evening on the roof of another hostel chatting to other travellers with incredible stories of places they've just been and of course some political discussions with some French Canadians.

Doing the bathes and Asian side of the city today with Gaz, Louise and Liam. I have 10 days to wait for the Iranian visa, so going to explore Turkey a little and get the Indian visa underway as well.

FIRST BABY CALF HAS BEEN BORN ON THE FARM. A beautiful little baby with a white face and dark body. Pictures in the Istanbul gallery - the only pics thus far.