I am writing this blog post from a hotel bedroom in the Galata area of Istanbul.
We are here for a few days leading up to the June bank holiday weekend and I am looking forward to seeing the sights of this famous city, known historically as Byzantium, Constantinople, and now Istanbul.
The Galata area, in which we are located, has a famous tower, the Galata Tower, which affords great views of the city.
So far we have found the Turkish people we have met to be extremely helpful and friendly.
We had some Raki last night at dinner and it reminded me of Ouzo we had in Greece. It is made of aniseed and grapes and is the national tipple, apparently.
Flying with Turkish Airlines was a pleasant experience with a “complimentary” lunch.
I put “complimentary” in inverted commas as the price was probably built into the price of the tickets. Nevertheless, it was a blast from the past that the cabin crew were not trying to sell us anything at all, including lottery tickets (Ryanair!).