Istanbul, Turkey

Had an interesting train ride, had beds on this one, got to the border at 3am and the conductor told us 1 hour so we went back to sleep, what he meant was we had one hour to go get our stamps and visas, customs dude came round after an hour and we had nothing, needless to say this made us popular with everyone. Luckily as a kiwi I did not need to get a visa so I just whipped out and got my stamp, the Aussies had to pay to get in and so had some dramas.

Istanbul is stuck off my budget destination list. Accom is ok, but with everything else the Turks wring as much cash out of holiday makers as possible. A beer in a pub is $5 Aussie. Hostels dont let you BYO and have no kitchens, making you eat out all the time. So consumed many kebabs.

Was Ramadan while I was there, so fucking busy, people everywhere all the time, even late at night. Enjoyed it though, but four days was ample. Did a cruise up the mighty Bosporus and ate a dodgy fish kebab. Smoked sheesha with many nationalities but mostly Aussies as the European uni crowd has gone back to school.