To dispense with today we decided to do the sight-seeing circuit following breakfast in the “Pudding Shop”. First on the agenda was the The Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii) which we “did” in no time. A quick once-over of the interior, out through the persistent street vendors, and off to the Tokapi Palace. The Topkapı Palace, or the Seraglio, is a large museum in the east of the Fatih district of Istanbul. In the 15th and 16th centuries it served as the main residence and administrative headquarters of the Ottoman sultans.
We did the rounds of this museum in a “no nonsense” tour taking in Japanese plates, jewels, coins, ancient scripts and parchments, sultan’s clothes, John the Baptist’s arm, religious relics (mainly bits of the Prophet Mohammed) and, best of all, the armoury. There was also “The Anatolian Civilisations: XVIIIth European Art Exhibition” on, drawing visitors from all over the world, but it was sadly wasted on us two ignorant peasants. Like giving donkeys strawberries!
Military uniforms on the street were so common place that you didn’t notice them after a while. It was strange to see pairs of armed paratroopers patrolling the streets holding hands. We had tea in the sun with our little chums, the chewing gum boys, who were repeating their mantra, pleading for 15 Turkish Lira among the tables.
Then on to “Joe’s” for an unrequired, but time-consuming meal before taking up positions in the sun opposite the Holiday Hotel (where we stayed in 1979) with our books. Still with two hours to kill we walked down to the Galata Bridge to watch the fishermen for the last time. Then we bundled into a taksi with a tall Norweigan guy named Jan and taken downtown to another bus office, where after a long wait, our luggage was tied on top of the bus. After about an hour all the luggage was secured and covered with a tarpaulin, when another family arrived with a wagon load of baggage.
We were using the Tuncelililer International Bus Company (Uluslararası Otobüs Isl.) in Istanbul which charged 7,500 Turkish Lira to take us to Tehran, but should have taken us all the way to the Iranian border with Pakistan.
After a long drawn-out and heated argument the two drivers reluctantly untied the load and slowly added the new cargo. It was getting dark when we finally drew out of Istanbul and we were about 2 hours late. We then settled down for a long cold (all our warm stuff was on the roof) night, fitfully dozing on the coach. The other passengers were all Iranians and very friendly to us. Four of them spoke English to a greater or lesser degree.
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