Knitstanbul Part 1

(To be fair, this is the name of a group on Ravelry that I would strongly recommend anyone thinking of going to Istanbul visit first. They give great advice.)

Yay! Istanbul! It was brilliant, Our first hotel was sublime. This was our little balcony.

The hotel had three resident cats. This is Lonesome George. He was slightly senile and spent a lot of time sleeping.

This is Mr Mijage. He was very affectionate, especially if you gave him your breakfast butter.

Cats abound in Istanbul - especially in the traditional half around Sultanamet. I saw that in Morocco too but there the people didn't seem to like them. Whereas in Istanbul it's like they both exist together quite peaceably, doing their own thing.

The city is the most well defined 'city of two halves' I have ever seen. Sultanamet has Aya Sophia, Blue Mosque and traditional museums. All were extremely inspiring. This column...

...reminded me so vividly of this sock. Now there's a sentence you don;t see very often. Then look at this door carving at the Tokapi Palace.

Awesome.

But of course, we weren't just there for culture. There was the football too. We had a number of meals like this.

It was rather sweet really, and left me free to knit away. Speaking of which, this is what you want to be looking for in the Grand Bazaar.

And this is what you'll find when you get there.

Wall to wall knitting shops all round a courtyard. Admittedly it is mostly acrylic but hey, it's still good.

More to come in part 2.....