Sightseeing

Istanbul full of history, Geographical, political, religious and cultural. Ugur original guide was amazing, with a wealth of knowledge and you could tell he enjoyed what he did as he just talked non stop. We could have listened to him all day, he just had a knack of making sense informative talks with a touch of humor, to keep us interested. Wednesday was a final day with Ugur with a walking tour of Pera and Galata seeing the area of ​​the recent political protests and what they called a pedestrian square which hold approx. 1.5million people on the weekend and late in the morning. We experienced three seasons with sunshine rain and hail as we journeyed. Ugur has many contacts around the local area and got us into some fasinating destinations such as the Hotel where the Orient Express stopped with passengers such as Agatha Christie and other wealthy travellors stayed, to have an expensive hot chocolate. Everything within the hotel is original including the elevator that can only be used 10 to 15 times a day, due to it's age and maintanence of the running system. We sampled traditional Turkish Doner Kebabs in a sandwich, from a local cafe and pretzels for the wagon portable stalls on the streets.
We were priviledged enough to enter a Greek Orthodox church that actually held one third of the column to which Jesus was tied and whipped, with the other two sections located in Jerusalem.
We climbed the stairs to the panaramic pathway around the top of the Galata Tower being amazed with the 360 ​​degree view of the city.
At the comletion of this day we reluctantly said goodbye to our guide, as from here we are being placed into or groups for ANZAC and meeting our new guide at the welcome dinner.