Strange Night

My good first impressions were temporarily shattered about an hour after I'd gone to bed when someone took one of the beds in the dormitory. As it turned out, he was the brother of the boss but that didn't make much difference when he began to snore. I soon realized the guy was drunk and nothing could be done to stop him from creating minor earth tremors every minute or so. The guy on night duty offered to let me have another room which I accepted, only to find this in the bathroom. 

This is the bird in the bathroom which I ejected from the window, complete with nest.  Hope the poor creature wasn't too traumatized and has found another residence. It has crossed my mind as to how long ago that room was last used.

But however the breakfast, included in the 10 euro price of staying here was excellent, on the top floor terrace with a great view of the Marmara Sea. 
On the left is the Cem Sultan Hotel which even though a disastrous night was had, I think its not going to give me any more surprises - hopefully. 

So on with the day in which I had a ramble around the vicinity which includes the Blue Mosque. I think it was a bit too late to go inside with the crush of probably thousands of tourists. In wandering around it is obvious that tourism is Istanbul's big earner.


The legendary carpet shops abound everywhere with the customary offers of big reductions and free shipping to anywhere you want. Maybe I'll test them out and ask someone to knock off the shipping after a lengthy haggle and see what happens. On the other hand I dont think I've got the patients for that.

Women of course have to cover their shoulders because they are women!!!!

This rather reminded me of the queue waiting to get into the cathedral  in Santiago de Compost Heap.

Lots of feral cats here. This one likes the mosque.

Me and the mosque

I didn't feel to much like anything very adventurous so I stayed fairly near the hostel. Some Roman artifacts still remain, and also the remains of prominent Sultans. 

An obelisk and the Serpent Column in the foreground from around the  3rd  century.

And so for lunch, or dinner, whatever you want to call it, I had a superb one at this restaurant very  close to the Cem Sultan. bon appetit.