Tbilisi Day 2: Narikala Fortress and the Quest for the Botanical Gardens

Feeling rather worse for wear after the previous late night drinking, we planned to have a lazy, easy day of wandering around Tbilisi's Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, they proved unexpectedly elusive.

After our usual Georgian breakfast of khachapuri (cheesy bread) we made caught the subway to Liberty Square and walked down to the dry bridge market, the place to buy all kinds of random things including Soviet memorabilia, old musical instruments, jewelry and stuffed animals. I bought a replacement my Russian hat after the original badge had been tragically lost at a music festival a few years ago.

Jewelry and handmade rugs for sale at Tbilisi's dry bridge market.

Last Day in Istanbul - Bosphorous Cruise and more mosques

We woke up late again on our last full day in Istanbul. Most people in our dorm room were late to bed as were we so it couldn't be helped. Your schedule is rather dictated by other people when you stay in a dorm room, especially one as cramped as ours. Our room smelt like a monkey house too as two guys who were cycling across Turkey had moved into our dorm the night before and their bags stank! Not surprising given the extreme heat. 

After our usual hostel brekkie we set off for the Eminonu docks to catch a Bosphorous ferry. As you probably already know, Istanbul is famous as it is the only city in the world that is built on two continents, Europe and Asia. The two sides are separated by the Bosphorous Sea. The docks were a bit confusing but after some messing about we decided to get the more expensive 25 lira long circle cruise that would take us way up to some far flung places on the Asian side. There were shorter, cheaper (10 lira) cruises available but we'd just missed one of course. We jumped aboard our big old passenger ferry, grabbed a seat on the outer edge so we could have a good view and settled in for a day of sitting around rather than walking - bliss! We saw lots of jellyfish in the water and cormorants diving for fish. There was plenty of rubbish too unfortunately. Actually, one of the things we noticed about the ferries was how much smoke they poured pout of their chimneys. The smog over the sea was pretty disgusting and hung over Istanbul in a visible pall.

The New Mosque seen from our ferry on the Bosphorous.

Istanbul Day 2 - A bit of Byzantium and a lotta Ottoman

We had another late start on our second full day in Istanbul. Lucky we don't have a tight schedule for our travels or anything! After loading up on bread at our complimentary hostel breakfast we set out for another full on day of sightseeing in the searing 34 degrees celsius heat. 

Our first stop of the day was a visit to the Basilica Cistern or "Yerebatan Sarayı" as it's called  in Turkish which means the "Sunken Palace".The Basilica Cistern is a huge cathedral sized ancient cistern that lies beneath Istanbul. Like the Hagia Sofia, it was built in the 6th century AD during the reign of Justinian of the Byzantine Empire. Of course, being a Byzantine construction, it couldn't be just purely functional and is also an astonishing fat of engineering. For the uninitiated, a cistern, at least one of this scale, is a large receptacle with a waterproof lining for holding and storing liquids, usually water. No, it's not just the thing on top of your toilet! 

The Basilica Cistern gets it's Byzantine name from its location. It was originally built underneath a basilica (church). According to Wikipedia, some old texts claim that 7000 slaves were used to make the cistern. The Basilica was, and still is, absolutely massive covering an area of 9,800 square meters and with a maximum capacity of 80,000 cubic metres - that's a lot of water. The ceiling of the Basilica Cistern was supported by over 300 marble columns, in various different styles. Some were Ionic, some Doric and a few Corinthian, some plain and a few were engraved. Apparently this was because the builders recycled parts from older Roman ruins. 

The Basilica Cistern was cool and echoing and only had a few feet of water lying at the bottom when we were there. The water was filled with strange fat carp-like grey fish.

Istanbul Day 1 - Mostly mosques

We woke up on our fırst day in Istanbul to be greeted by a beautiful, but very hot, sunny day. We had a bıt of a late start but it seems that the day starts quite late here anyway gıven the intense heat. The hostel where we are sdtaying provides us with a free breakfast every morning which is a nice touch and Ali, the cheerful owner, makes sure that everyone can eat ıt by having long serving times - 8am to 12pm! Lucky for us!

After plenty of bread, cheese, boiled egg and honey washed down with some Turkish tea and a chat wıth some of the other guests we set off for our first day of sightseeing. Before we even left the hostel we explored the rooftop area whıch gave us a great vıew of the Hagıa Sofia and the Blue Mosque. 

Rowan playing one of the 3 tunes he knows on my uke on the hostel roof.

The Hagia Sofia as seen from our hostel roof.