Day 31 & 32 - Turkey (Istanbul)

Istanbul is amazing. The city is so beautiful and surprising clean. I met Prue at the airport and it was the first time we'd seen each other in over a year - we had heaps to catch up on! We made our way to the hostel and put our stuff down then we set off exploring. We stayed in the area of Sultanahmet and visited various attractions such as Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque.
It is really important not to draw attention to yourself because women can get hassled here. We were advised by other travellers to Turkey to wear long skirts that cover your knees and tops that aren't too revealing. We still managed to receive our fair share of comments and conversation starters. Most of the time the best way to approach it is to be friendly with a polite 'no thanks' but at the end of the night you are really sick of hearing 'where you from', 'you come and eat here', 'I show you around Istanbul', and 'you Aussie?'.

Blue Mosque
Sheets are provided to cover your shoulders as you enter and you must remove your shoes. Inside there are areas for women only and the floor coverings are so soft!

Grand Bazaar
The streets are absolutely packed. We visited the Bazaar on a Saturday so it was packed with locals as well as tourists. There are heaps of rip offs around the place but you can strike up a bargain.

Taksim Square
First dodgy experience of my trip so far...a 29YTL taxi ride turned into 75YTL! The taxi driver did the dodgy and swaped my 50YTL (equivalent to $50 aussie dollars) for a 5YTL note and pretended that's what I gave him! I couldn't remember and wasn't completely positive that it wasn't 5YTL so I let him get away with it. Some good lessons learned. We enjoyed some yummy baklava though.