Athens

We were up bright and early and out of our hotel by 0300 to make our flight to Athens

For some crazy reason, it wasn't a direct flight so we flew for maybe half an hour, stopped in Izmir then flew to Athens from there.

The Turkish are probably the most painful people to fly with.

The Turks

We spent our last few days with Gokce, Baris, Arda, Derya, Alpern, Ahmet and Semih (and a few of their friends whose names I've forgotten) roaming the streets of Istanbul.

They took us to the coolest cafes that only the locals know about because they're down little alleyways and up ten flights of stairs.

We were so lucky to have run into these guys, they were all genuinely nice and always went out of their way to make our Istanbul adventure so much better

They were just so wonderful.

Cat Count

Final cat count came in at 64, 12 dogs and 2 ducks

pretty impressive considering we spend most of the day indoors

Grand Bazaar

Such an amazing day!

We set off for the Grand Bazaar which in itself is pretty rad.

Afterwards we met up with Philippe's cousin Yasemin for a bite to eat, underneath our cafe was an underground city that the owners only found out about when they were doing renovations. We went down to have a look and it was unbelievable.

As we were walking Yasemin back to the tram we passed a jewellery store her friend owns so dropped in to say hello where he too us up to the rooftop resturaunt (offered us dinner, which we had to refuse) and showed us the most amazing view of Istanbul

He also gave us lavender bags as we left.

After leaving Yasemin we went for a walk and were stopped by a group of students who were learning english and wanted some practise. We were outside of a cafe so the owner said we could sit in the cafe and gave us all tea.

We sat with them and had a nice chat and then went to Taksim with them.

They took us to a bar that their friend owned where Luani tried a devil drink that they have to serve with a bottle of water and tell you to have a drink of the water for every drink of the alcohol because it's so strong.

By the time all of this had finished it was late and they didn't feel it was safe to leave Luani and I to go home on our own so they came with us, even though it was out of their way, they had school in the morning aaand it took them over an hour to get home.

The Cats of Istanbul

So I feel that one of the main attractions of Istanbul are the cats.

They are everywhere!

I'll post more on Istanbul as a whole later but today it's cats

When we arrived, I wasn't in the best mood and having millions of cats everywhere didn't really help.

sure cats are great, in moderation - A concept that the Turkish are yet to grasp

Because today is Tuesday, I've made it Luani's goal to catch a cat by the time we leave

which shouldn't be too hard because they are everywhere

I'll count how many cats we see today and report back with a final figure at the end of the day

peace out children of the sun

Cistern Basilica

ahhhahaha I'm hilarious AND can't believe Luani actually let me take this

apparently when Medussa's on her head she can't turn you into stone...

luuucky

Luani enjoying her post Basillica snack