Our flight with Air Uzbekistan was quite pleasant – we even got red wine! We arrived in Istanbul airport mid- afternoon and caught the airport bus from the lower ground floor of the airport building. Here buses depart to all locations in the city. I also bought us Istanbul kartes (like Oyster cards) which in the end proved largely unnecessary as you can now pay by touching your credit card at pay points. It was useful when I needed the loo a couple of times though, as you can use it to pay for public toilets.

Tim has been to Istanbul many times before and seen all the main sites, but I haven’t. I bought an Istanbul explorer pass. There are several other such passes available where you can pay different rates to see different numbers of sights over a fixed time period. It turned out that the discount isn’t very big and to access places you often have to turn up at fixed times for an initial ‘tour’ which is irritating. If I did it again I’d just purchase tickets for the individual attractions online when I wanted to visit. Istanbul is a bit like London – there are so many attractions you will never manage to see everything. We were there for three days and visited Aghia Sofia, the Archeological museum, the Basilica Cistern and the Topkapi Palace. Like London , sightseeing is massively expensive, a bit of a shock for us after our months of budget travelling!

We could have could easily spent a whole day in the Topaki Palace. If I ever visit Istanbul again I will do that and bring a picnic! It’s a bit like visiting Hampton Court, or a stately home in the UK. It’s well worth paying the extra to visit the Harem area, which is like a separate sight in its own right. The Harem, meaning ‘private area’ is the whole part of the palace where the Sultan, his wives, courtesans and family lived. There are separate areas to see which were for the women, the Sultan’s Mother, the Sultan and the black Eunuch slaves who guarded the harem. They all have their own hammams and in each section there was a hierarchy. Learning about the history of the place is fascinating.

In the pavilion area of the palace there are fantastic views of Istanbul from a balcony. There are kitchen areas, a mosque and religious relics among other delights to explore. The religious relics include two footprints of the prophet Mohammad, remnants of The Prophet’s hair, Moses’s staff, fragments of John the Baptist’s arm and skull bone and the sword of the prophet Daniel.

We visited Aghia Sophia on our first day and turned up before it opened. We also turned up early to the Basilica Cistern. As we were at the front of the line it was less crowded and we managed to largely evade the tour groups. I think it is worth picking one major sight a day, getting there early and the spending the rest of the day visiting more minor/ free sights and parks or museums.

Aghia Sofia was beautiful, although Tim was disappointed that non Muslims have to view it only from the upper gallery, now it has been turned back into a working mosque. It was very evocative thinking about the changes the building has been through and what that represents. Even now it’s re-establishment as a mosque tells us something about Turkey. As we visited Istanbul president Erdogan was meeting with Putin and Xi Jinping.

After Aghia Sofia we walked over to the Blue Mosque which is donation only and also beautiful, but with an atmosphere of ordinary worship about it. Kids were running around in the area allocated for Muslim prayer. I like it that they are welcomed into worship spaces like this and allowed to enjoy themselves.

The cats of Istanbul look like they own the city. They are sleek and healthy looking with access to automatic feeding machines like the ones on Greek islands I have visited (we were told in Greece that contraceptive hormones are added to the food – not sure if that’s also the case in Turkey). The ones in Topaki Palace were particularly fat and Tim noticed the gardeners feeding the cat treats from their pockets!

I think my favourite sight in Istanbul was the Basilica Cistern. It was peaceful, beautiful and an amazing feat of engineering. It used to supply all the city’s water needs. There is some modern art in there that works well with the existing structures. My favourites were the water sprite and an amoeba like shape that threw its mysterious green light onto the pillars nearby. The builders of the cistern used discarded ancient marble plinths, some with interesting carvings on them, which all adds to the atmosphere. They are thickly covered with limestone, but in places you can see the marble still showing through.

Istanbul is a city of cafes and parks. We did a fair amount of hanging about in the beautiful park near the archeological museum and the many cafes in the Sultanahmet area. There are a few things to see in the park, including a small cistern and the Column of the Goths. There is also a reasonably priced canteen style cafe there.

The archeological museum is worth visiting to see the sarcophagi alone. They are intricately decorated with scenes illustrating the lives of the deceased.

We mainly stayed in Sultanahmet, as that’s where the main sights and our hotel were, but we did venture over to the Asian side via the metro and back via the ferry. We wandered around the commercial area and admired the Galata tower. Then we ate fish rolls by the side of the Bosporus as the sun was going down. There are lots of fish restaurants on the Galata bridge, but I think the kiosks selling rolls with sardines/ mackerel in are the best value.

We also visited the main bazaar and spice markets where we sampled lots of Turkish sweets. There is a dish which consists of fried cheese with syrup poured on it plus delicious icecream that tastes like it is made from mascarpone cream. I recommend it. All the little sweet shops in the market seem to sell it. We ate lots of kebabs but the best were from Sehzade in the market, which has well deserved reviews from all over the world on its walls. They cut the lamb very thin and serve it with wraps. Apparently it’s recipe originating in eastern Turkey – absolutely delicious!

We are now more than ready to head by bus to Ayvalik where we will soend one night before getting the boat to Lesvos, before returning home. I’m not sure I will write a blog from there. I might just take a break from media of all kinds, swim and eat before returning to reality on the 29th September.

This year has been such an opportunity for me and Tim at a transitional phase in our lives. We’re grateful to have had the chance to take it. But we’re looking forward to returning home, spending time with family and settling in ready for a winter in Hastings and Bexhill!