I *heart* Istanbul

After a frustrating day in the office, without IT (a long and unsurprising story...) and so completely redundant and a total spare part, I hot-footed it back to the hotel, met up with another short-term colleague (who I trained back in 2005...!) who was eager to get out and see the sights, having arrived the week before from Lagos. We took the funicular tram down to the bottom of the hill, took a tram up to Sultanahmet and walked through the park towards the Blue Mosque, as the call to prayer beamed out from that and other mosques in the neighbourhood. The Basilica Cistern was the perfect place to cool down from the searing heat (despite being 6/7pm) and was well worth the entry fee. Walked back down through Gulhane Park and along past Sirkeci station and to Eminonu to watch the ferries, fishermen and food sellers.

Supper at a gourmet-ish burger place at Tunel, sitting on a roof-top terrace, with a couple of bottles of coca-cola. Very good.