Day 13 - Istanbul

First thing after breakfast the hotel manager took us to the British Embassy. After going through security that matches that of an airport we spoke with an officer and explained the circumstances around the missing passport. We completed forms and handed over £90.00 then left in search of a shop to take a passport photo. That was an adventure in itself ! We found the place, a tiny wooden door led to a cool marble hall and then to a tight spiral staircase , we climbed up maybe 6 or 7 stories and knocked on a little wooden door. The studio was like walking back into the 60's with Kodak posters and films staked up and cameras that would not look out of place in a museum. We handed over 15 tl and 10 minutes later we was back at the embassy. Half our later we had an emergency passport for Angie.o One problem, the passport will only permit Transit via 5 countries, we had planned to go via twelve! Time to rewrite the plan !!
We walked back from the Embassy passing through all the different professions on the way. Whole roads are dedicated to one particular trade .
We soon arrived at one of the many bridges that connect the Asian continent to Europe and literally walked back into Europe taking photos of the busy ferry lanes running underneath.
We spent the afternoon in Gulhane Park, it's the largest park in Istanbul and was part of the gardens to the Topaki palace. From here we headed back to the hotel to rest up before going out for supper. I chatted with the manager about a new route through Turkey ( he's a biker ) and decided not to go to Goreme in the centre of Turkey but to head directly for the coast then follow it around back to Greece. In Greece we would catch a ferry to Italy and return via France thus keeping the number of countries to under five.
We spent the last night out wondering around taking photo's and just enjoying the great atmosphere of a really amazing city that we will defiantly return to.