Istanbul

We have just spent a fantastic 4 days in Istanbul, a city that everyone should visit at least once.  Between the vehicular traffic, the pedistrian traffic, trams, and boat traffic on the Bospherous all combined with a  normal population of about 14 million it is a city on the move.  We have had good weather, cool and windy but no rain!!

The main tourist stops have been hit with the exception of the Aya Sophia due to a glitch in our guesthouse accoomodations as we had to change rooms which the put is way  back in line, about 100 yards at least, so combined with that and the people aready inside we elected to go the Grand Bazaar and then back to the Galata Bridge.  The Bridge is always teeming with people and fishermen and is the main entry to the Sultanamet area of town where most of the hostels and hotels are.  It's also the oldest area of town and contains the Aya Sophia, Blue Mosque, Palace and numerous other sites.

We even got to go fishing today with some locals.  We had bought a couple beers and went down to the water below the bridge and they let us borrow their poles.  All the fish are about 3 to4" long that they just fry up and eat, quite tasty actually.  We each caught about a dozen in no time at all.  Between that and buying a new cooking pot that was the accomplishment for the day.

Tomorrow morning we ride to the airport for our 1:30 flight to Bangkok and our battle with the floods.  Last news we could get is the airport is open and parts of town are under water.  We plan to ride south and east along the coast towards Cambodia so we'll see what our arrival brings.

My only comment of inerest is CATS//the city is teeming with them; friendly little buggers and awfully cute; of course coming from a cat lover; so i got my cat fix; next stop asia where they may end up on my plate!

will try to get a few pics on next!