Istanbul

This post, which is very short indeed, was suppose to be Part 1 of the Messy Guide to Must-Do's in Istanbul....for anyone who doesn't feel up to reading loads of guide books and/or surfing the net for hours on end. However the Messy household has been struck down by a virulent bout of food poisoning. Such that we have both been alternating between being curled up on the bed in the foetal position and hugging the porcelain in the bathroom. Not an attractive sight. So, the next post will be Part 1 (not sure how many parts there will be!) of my Istanbul guide.

And as soon as I am feeling up to it, I will be back out on the streets shooting some Street Style...so if you are looking for some street style posts, check back later in the week.

Tonight, I leave you with a George Carlin quote I read yesterday (in an article about some rather um, "interesting" parties which take place in London) which appealed to me as I lay on my (death*) bed: "Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting, "Holy sh*t! What a ride!"

Photographs above and below are from the Hagia Sophia (Aya Soyfa in Turkish) in Sultanahmet. The Hagia Sophia was originally a church, then became a mosque in 1453 and is now a museum. It is worth a visit to the Hagia Sophia for the exquisite Byzantine mosaics alone. The top photograph is a mosaic depicting Christ, the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist (I only photographed Christ as I couldn't fit all 3 in with my 50mm lens!). The other two photos I took through the windows in the South Gallery.

In the courtyard of Hagia Sophia:

A boy near the Galata Bridge (on the Sultanahmet side):

A fisherman on the Galata Bridge:

A jumble of deaded fish and what look like 1970's prawn cocktails (complete with cocktail sauce) on the Galata Bridge:

It got lowered down in front of me so of course I snapped it!:

Hot roasted chestnut vendor:

*Google is a wonderful thing except when you are suffering from a "medical condition" and are self-diagnosing (always dangerous). The words which leap out from the page are always the most dire like, oh, for example: can result in death, paralysis, severe dehydration, nervous system damage.....

Proceed to Google (for medical diagnosis) with infinite caution most excellent blog fans!