We had previously arranged a hotel transfer through Denzel tours, but as all the cars and taxis pulled out we realised that no one was there to collect us. This was upsetting as we had paid 30 Dollars in advance. A taxi driver kept on offering to take us, but we didn't want to pay twice. We felt lost without Hakan.  We found a phone, but had no card, so were standing at the phone helplessly when a man asked if he could help us. We explained our sorry story and he put his card in and phoned our hotel for us. He spoke to the hotel and then Keith spoke and then he spoke.  So it was worked out that a taxi would take us and the hotel would pay. So we bundled into a taxi relieved and were totally amazed at how friendly and helpful people were. This is also when we realised that local knowledge is good as the hotel was two minutes away and we could have taken a taxi for six million, so much cheaper than the thirty dollars we had paid in advance. Anyway you live and learn. Once at the hotel we showered and changed and went out by ourselves to see the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace, as they are closed on Tuesdays. At the Blue Mosque Dale bought some post cards to send to her friends for one dollar. The Blue Mosque is huge inside, we all had to cover up, and because Dale's dress had a slit in it, she had to put one of their skirts over, Keith had to wear a skirt as well because he was in shorts, so we had a good laugh. We sat in the Mosque for a while and then headed off for the Palace. The Palace is huge, and we saw the traditional dress and the jewels. It was good to see, but we were tired of museums by now and just wanted to go shopping at the grand bazaar which is the largest covered market. We walked for 15 minutes found a shop to get our pics developed and then hit the market. The first lane is all the jewellery shops. Dale just looked in the windows, not wanting to go in and take half an hour to get away from salesmen. She managed to ask prices from a few shops and then realised all the cheaper rings had white sapphires in, so resolved not to buy any jewellery. Dale and Keith were looking in a window while waiting for aunty Kay and Dori to buy T-shirts and got chatting to the owner, Sukru. Dale said she was not buying and asked where they got their diamonds from and Sukru told her Belgium. He told us the history surrounding the market way back from the Byzantine era. He offered us apple tea and invited us in as by now he knew what type of ring Dale was interested in. So out come the rings and down come the prices, by now Dori and aunty Kay were searching frantically for us, we found them and Dale ended up buying  a ring and we all sat in Sukru's shop for ages chatting and drinking tea. We asked about buying a mobile for Keith and Sukru said he would take us on Tuesday over his lunch time so he could put his sim card in, so we could be sure the mobile wouldn't be sim locked into a Turkish network. Off we wandered for the last hour before the market closed to see what else we buy. Yip you guessed we found more. On the way back to the hotel, we found a nice restaurant and made a reservation to go back for dinner. We had a wonderful dinner and then crashed for the night, tired but happy with our shopping.

Tuesday

After breakfast we headed off for St Sophia, which used to be a Christian church, but was later converted to a Mosque. It is really breath taking, even though its under restoration and had scaffolding in the centre. After that we headed off to meet our personal shopper, Sukru. We arrived at his shop and had some apple tea, and then headed off to find the perfect mobile. We walked and walked and then walked some more, it was boiling hot and we had no idea where we were. We arrived at a mall and Sukru popped in and out of shops asking questions for us, eventually Keith decided what he would have and Sukru checked it for us, and then Keith was a proud owner of a new 3210 Nokia for only 80 million. We then bought shwarmas and caught the tram back to the grand bazaar. The trams have air conditioning so it was an absolute pleasure. Back at the grand bazaar we went and bought a Turkish tea set and some apple tea which we had now fallen in love with. Now all of our money was spent and we were tired so back to the hotel it was for a siesta. We had dinner at the hotel later and then all passed out.

Wednesday

We all woke up feeling miserable as this was our last day. We went off to post the postcards and do some last minute shopping. We spoke to a carpet shop owner, whose brother has a shop in Cresta, Johannesburg. He was keen on making a quick sale, but Keith was adamant we could get it in Cresta Centre for cheaper.  We then went off to the beach to take pictures of the ship wrecked Russian oil trawler. By the time we got back to the hotel our transfer to the airport was there, so it was goodbye to the wonderfully hot Turkey and back to the UK. This holiday was wonderful, and we will definitely be going back to Turkey for carpets and more Hmmmmmm..