Istanbul Sunday day 1

My inner Muslim must have come out as soon as I arrived in Turkey, because despite not having much sleep on the 24 hour of flights I managed to wake up about 5 minutes before the call to prayer at about 5 a.m.
We had our breakfast on the rooftop terrace of our apartment.

As you can see the views are magnificent a good compensation  for having to climb the 4 flights of narrow spiralling staicase to the apartment.
Our first journey for the day involved walking from our hotel around the local area and then along the coastal road around to Eminonu. From here we wandered aroung the Spice Bazaar, ate roasted chestnuts and dried pineapple. From here we headed up through the bazaar towards the Grand Bazaar, it is closed on Sundays, Kristin intends to make a full frontal assault tomorrow, I hope the Turks are ready.
After about 4 hours of walking and about 15 km we got back to the apartment for a drink and a snack.
In the early afternoon we caught up with an ex- Rosebud SC teacher,Tony Anderson.

Tony was a great guide for the afternoon, showing us the Istanbul card ( like Myki,Oyster etc) which can be used on the trams,buses and ferries.
Tony took us over to the Asian side by ferry from Eminonu to Kadakoy, a very 'hip'area.
We went back to Bekitas by ferry, walked to Kabatas pass the Dolmabache Palace. From here we left Tony and caught the tram back to Sultanahmet.

We had an early dinner at a nice cafe near the apartment. A big day and a relatively early night.
Cheers