We left Tel Aviv on Wednesday having felt that our few days there gave us a good feel for the city, and especially for the portion of Old Jaffa that was close to our accommodation. Jaffa is the same place as Joppa in the Bible, so it is this place where Jonah ran away from the Lord’s calling to go east to Ninevah and went west instead across the sea. Well, we went northwest to Turkey, and what a wonderful bird’s eye view it was to travel over northern Israel, across the Mediterranean and then to see the amazing terrain of Turkey. By the way … Turkish Airlines is excellent! We would travel with them again without a second thought.

We were met by a driver from our hotel. What a blessing! We got excellent information at reception which helped us plan the few days here before our tour begins on Saturday evening.

Thursday – today we walked and walked. Our hotel is in a perfect location, very close to the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and the Archaeological Museums. As we are doing a detailed

tour in this area on Sunday, we explored the Archaeological Museums at the recommendation of an old friend, Paul Arnott. What a place. Incredible artefacts, history and information.

We then walked the Spice Bazaar and eventually found our way through alleys, streets and more bazaars to our pre-booked Turkish Bath!

What an experience. Such unique fun, and a definite ‘must do’. It was 90 minutes of sheer historical and cultural immersion.

After finding a great cafe for some

dinner, we arrived back at our hotel, after basically walking for close to 9 hrs. But we’ve got a bit of a handle now on this part of Istanbul!

Friday – booked an all day tour with a morning cruise up the Golden Horn and then through the Bosphorus. It’s fascinating to think that Turkey straddles two continents and is the meeting place of Asia and Europe.

And Istanbul is the city where this happens and basically has two hearts. The two continents are only separated by a narrow body of water called the Bosphorus joining

the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara.

But Istanbul is actually split into three parts with the Golden Horn being a narrow bay of the Bosphorus going west.

We saw the amazing Rumeli Fortress up the Bosphorus towards the Black Sea. This amazing structure was built in 4 months in 1451.

It was a lovely morning cruising up and down, seeing both history and the contemporary. There is a lot of wealth in Turkey generally, and in Istanbul in particular.

The afternoon moved to the land and we bussed our way round the city, firstly ascending Pierre Loti Hill to have a view of the city.

Easily the highlight of today was a visit to Dolmabahce Palace, the home of the last six Sultans prior to the dismissal of the Caliphate in the 1920s. Extravagant, opulent self-indulgence is probably the best way to describe it. Unable to take photos inside we suggest you go to http://www.greatistanbul.com/photos/DolmabahcePalace/dolmabahcepalacegateandthejanissaries.html

The odd thing was that this palace was built as the power and influence of the Ottomon empire was declining, and the Sultans were trying to show that they did still actually have power through the building. This clearly showed to us the illusion of power when you try to hold it.

We also had some incredible conversations today – a Muslim family from Kent, England holidaying in Istanbul for a few days. Had a great conversation getting into some real detail about variances in religion. Shared lunch with a Muslim family from Melbourne, who are now quite relaxed in their faith and not actually practicing. Met two women from the US who are off to the Holy Land in a few days, meeting up with a group from their church for a tour. Met an African couple – husband from Cameroon and wife from Burkina Faso, both bankers working in France. And then had afternoon tea with a couple from Newfoundland in Canada, and again had an opportunity for a gospel conversation, asking about his professed atheism and her agnosticism, following both having grown up in the Anglican Church.

From a day beginning at 9am, we finally arrived back at our hotel at 7pm. Another great day!

Saturday – Today we simply moved hotels to the other side of town, rested, wrote, read, washed, and met up with our next tour group before the beginning of our 2 weeks touring Turkey.

It’s interesting to be dealing with two different currencies in Turkey – the Turkish Lira and Euro. Some establishments only deal in one or the other, and sometimes you pay in lira and get euro as change or vice versa. We’ve only dealt with four currencies so far, but keeping the right exchange rates in our head so we can consider value for money is getting really tricky! We’re very grateful for some great little apps on the phone to keep us on track.