Rainy day in Istanbul

The Tour ended. Our fellow travellers dispersed. I wanted to post things back to Oz and take my clothes to a laundromat before checking out of Hotel Nidya at Noon with a transfer to Hotel Levni in the old quarter.

It started to rain as Anneli and I set out on our 3km walk to find a Post Office. on our way and across the road we saw the Palace - the Dolme Bacchi. We decided after sending off 2kgs of books and gifts that that's where we'd go.

Well this is a fairytale Palace. While built for the Sultan in the 1840s, because the Top Kapi Palace was apparently not opulent enoug. The Sultan hired the best Italian and French craftsmen to build something of quintessential extravagance on reclaimed land next to the Bosporus River.

Think Cinderella at the Ball. Think Versailles. Think Mozart playing to the Court. Beautiful formal gardens with stately ponds and ornate fountains. See photos on Facebook.

But we weren't allowed to photograph within the Palace, we were put into a tour group which would walk a thin line through the Palace with an English speaking guide (who looked like a dashing prince, no less). And we put plastic bags over our shoes. Max visitors in a day- 3000.

Think 10,000 piece crystal chandeliers. Think massive red carpeted stairways that swoop around on 2 sides with crystal ballastrade legs. Think very large spaces with gold dripping from the ceiling and fancy frescoes, and bear furs with their heads on the floor. And giant elephant tusk ornaments.

All these gifts from England, France,  India, China - all over the world. Gift giving diplomacy for the powerful and the rich. 'Where does it all come from and who pays for it? ' the cries my forever Bolshy heart.

Well even Attaturk enjoyed the spoils of the Dolma Bacchi during his presidency.

We didn't have time to see the Harem. We had to take a taxi to get back to Hotel Nidya before our transfer to Hotel Levni on 12 Ankara Caddesi.

We were welcomed at reception with drinks and suggestions of places to visit by a French girl called Mathilde.

By that time it was pissing down with rain. Was going to take clothes to laundry but with the rain, the Hotel Service seemed more attractive. Just doing my smalls by hand.

So we set out again all rainproofed- up thanks to Rosie's over-gumboots. We visited the 3rd century Cistern, built to contain the city's water underground. They used the old Greco-Roman columns, some Corinthian and even 2 heads of Medusa statues and had high Byzantine ceilings. It was revitalised in 1973 and they keep carp in there to keep the water clean,

We had a terrible and expensive lunch in a tourist area, then caught the tram to Kudasi from where we would take the finnicular to Tacsum Square.

We walked down Independence Street, all lined with designer label shops, until we reached the more Bohemian end. And then every second shop was an instrument shop or related to music in some way.

We stopped at a Cafe playing beautiful music and had Apple Tea, while looking at the passing crowd, a husband and wife from Syria passed, the father holding the child and the mother holding a sign.I gave them money.

At the bottom the hill we caught a tram 2 stations back to Levni, stopping to but Knafe on the way, and a new expensive Wolf Kin backpack.

Now I'm buggered. Happily so.