We wake up at 8am and go out at 9.30am. The bags are abandoned in the Youth Hostel and we head for a Turkish bath, after I finally persuade Iain this is a Good Thing. It's a bit scary initially as I'm on my own and no-one speaks English, but after a while it's nice and relaxing. Men and women are separated, and the first thing to do is enter a huge marble chamber with sauna-like heat. It has a circular raised slab in the centre, with space for ten people to lie facing the middle. The ceiling is domed, with light angled into carved star shapes. Around the perimeter are large sinks with bowls, and bathing rooms. A naked woman with huge breasts (Iain would have liked this) comes in after half an hour of my lying down and sweating. She speaks no English but manages to indicate that I should abandon my towel and places me where she wants me. I get massaged, showered and washed, and feel thoroughly clean, a first for a fortnight. An English woman arrives, whose husband meets Iain, and who, coincidentally, we met and tried to help on a tram the day before, when he was lost.

We walk to the Grand Bazaar, which I am expecting to look like a scene from Indiana Jones. It doesn't, in fact it looks like a down-market Metro-Centre. It's a "crap-fest", as one American aptly described it previously in Athens. We get lost, as a guidebook has promised us, then decide to have lunch. Since we haven't seen anything better we opt for Burger King by the station. Beanburgers!

[The Throne Room of the Harem in the Palace in Istanbul. Concubine-tastic...]

We visit the Topkapi Palace, a huge complex of buildings and museums. We tour the Harem, which is full of weird concubine rooms and things we don't understand. It's also incredibly opulent and beautiful. We like Turkish architecture, and the view of the skyline with the mosques fulfils its breathtaking cliché. The Treasury has lots of expensive pointless stuff which leads to us arguing as to the relative merits of keeping national treasures vs feeding starving population, an extension of our on-going royalists debate (Iain is pro) which neither of us will concede. The tour guide, incidentally, has very poor English for

[Long bridge in Istanbul over the Bosphorus, spanning between Asia and Europe. See the lighter section? It's being painted.]

someone who's professional, compared to most Turkish people we meet.

We're tired but go to see the Blue Mosque, minus shoes plus a headscarf for me. It's as incredible inside as outside, but we're getting blasé about Turkish buildings already. Istanbul is one of those rare cities where you can find a 360 degree beautiful view. We also take a look at the Hippodrome, where Roman chariot races were held, and of which three columns survive.

[View of Istanbul from The Galata Tower, with the Golden Horn in the foreground, and the Bosphorus to the far left with Asia barely visible in the distance.]

We get a tram to the Bosphorus and take a cheap boat trip. It's cheap because the boat looks like it could sink at any minute and the crew don't speak English. It's interesting enough but we're bored with views now. Despite this, we walk across the river to the Galata Tower, through a dodgy looking area where we'd planned to have dinner but change our minds. The tower is nice (and has a lift, which is a big plus) but only 90 degrees of the view are worth seeing. It's still, however, incredible. Istanbul has been a brilliant destination.

[Ditto, with the mosques on the horizon.]

We walk back across to the nicer bit of Istanbul, and take a tram back to the hostel. We write postcards (which, as I type this a month later, still haven't arrived) and go out to eat, unusually, pizza! We head for the train station, aware of the nightmarish three days travel that faces us. The train leaves dead on time, and is pretty good for the money. We get a sleeper to ourselves, and my German comes in handy as the Bulgarian conductor speaks it. We sleep fine until customs.