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We are sitting at the airport in Istanbul waiting for our flight to Cairo. We caught a shuttle bus but due to the times between pickups we had to opt for an earlier one. We arrived here at 8am and our flight doesn't leave until 12.55pm. That is a lot of down time. We've had about 3 hours sleep so today is going to go on forever.
Yesterday morning we actually got up early for once. We had been out late with the girls the night before and didn't have a great amount of Zzz's, but being our last day in Turkey we had to make it count. It was off to the Archeological museum for a few hours to get a dose of some very ancient history. Seeing artifacts from 17000 years ago just blows the mind. It was surprising how well preserved a lot of these were, with some sacophogai and stone work still displaying colours. We skipped through the ancient Egypt exhibit pretty quickly as a result of our next destination.
A few hours later we were historied out so went for a walk through Topkapi Palace gardens. It was the first sunny day we have had for a while so just wanted to enjoy being outside feeling the rays. A little precursor to Egypt I suppose. The park was beautiful and we spent quite a bit of time outpacing old ladies selling roses. With so many paths it was easy to deviate and their little legs just couldn't catch up. Then it was back home to pack and have a snooze before a final taste of Istanbul.
We met Liz back at Taksim Square. There was a hell of a lot more people when we exited the funicular than the night before. We pushed through the crowd and found Liz and headed towards one of her favorite restaurants. It was a basic place but we had a great feed that is closest to the best meal of our trip. Fresh bread and salads are brought out before they serve you meat on a skewer. You make your own wraps and the freshness and quality of the food made it amazing. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. From there we headed off for some beers and hubbly bubbly (sheesha) and met up with another of Liz's friends. Then it was on to one of her local bars with fantastic views. It was dead when we turned up but the joint was rocking by the time we left. Lots of people dancing and just out for a good time. Mindful of the early flight we took it easy on the drinks but still enjoyed the night. We were about to leave but there was another favourite bar on the way so joined Liz for a final drink. Of course that turned into a few but still very much under control. After a few dances and the approach of 1.30am we had to say our sad goodbyes. We didn't want to leave Istanbul, but after such a great night we didn't want to leave Liz either. We hope you stayed until the end!
Our 6 days just haven't been enough. We have only scratched the surface of the city and there is so much more we want to see here. We hope to come back but it's so hard with too many places to see. The thing that will get us back though is we will be heading to Gallipoli for ANZAC day this year or next. We will make sure we get some more time in this beautiful city. But for now it's bye Liz, bye Emily and bye Istanbul and all you crazy Turks. It's off to t-shirts, sand and pyramids. Right now though it's waiting, waiting, waiting!
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