Last day in Istanbul

We woke up this morning for the last time to the sound of the call to prayer which ushered in a beautiful day with blazing sunshine and a clear sky. After a quick breakfast, we walked over Galatay Bridge past myriads of fishermen to Beyoglu to find a Catholic church for Mass. Having got rather lost in side streets and feeling tempted to give up, Sarah spotted a nun, the first and last one we have seen here, who we accosted and managed to communicate with in very broken German. She directed us to the church of St Anthony of Padua on Iskleskal Caddesi which had an Italian Mass at 11:30. We think the sermon might have been something about John the Baptist but I wouldn't swear on it. The church was about half full - not bad considering there were three other Masses as well over the weekend. It's a lovely church run by Italian priests - Pope John XXIII preached here for ten years while he was the Vatican's ambassador to Turkey and there is a nice soppy statue of him outside the church with a dove. Catholic geeks among the readers, click here for more details.


Afterwards, we treated ourselves to Turkish coffee and an incredibly rich cake consisting of honey, cream and cheese, in a nearby cafe while we wrote postcards and then headed back to the hostel via a stall selling freshly pressed fruit juice - they literally squash an orange in front of you into a plastic cup and you do the rest.


And now we're totally up to date with the blog and feel very proud of our Herculean efforts! Shortly, we'll be off to have a meal before taking ourselves to the station for the late night train to Plovdiv. We're both really sorry to leave Istanbul - it's such a fascinating city and there is still so much more to explore. But we're very glad we gave ourselves a whole week; it's been a fantastic start to the trip. Wish us luck on the train - next stop Bulgaria!