Making our way to Istanbul

What a journey 23 hours after leaving Melbourne, Bryan and I have made it to our hotel.

This was my first trip to Europe. I know I was nervous about flying a long haul flight.  However not as nervous as the young lads we have ventured over here to remember. What it must have been like leaving Albany on the "Adventure of a lifetime". Their long trip on a troop ship must have been the longest those boys and girls (female nurses) must have been on.  I thought my 16 hour flight to Doha was bad.

However the first leg went well,  the landing left a bit to be desired though! Doha airport was amazing.  Very clean,  friendly and lots to see. The 4 hour stop over went so fast.

While there I took a couple of pics that reminded me of Melbourne on a hazy summer's day.

Our connecting flight to Istanbul went off without a hitch. Istanbul is a massive city. My expectations of a large city have been blown.

Talking about blown, the journey from Sabiha Gokcen International Airport to our hotel is one that will stay in my memory forever. I have never been in a vehicle that traveled so fast, never indicated and merged by pushing in to what ever gap on the freeway he wanted. 
The worst bit was,  every other driver on the road was doing the same! There is so much going on all of the time on these roads.  I thought the Bolte bridge in Melbourne was bad.

Everyone has a job though.  Even in a traffic jam, food and drink can be purchased.  There were these brave vendors who have food piled on long poles to feed truckies,  boxes of sweets and water could also be purchased.  The food available is amazing,  I imagine the first ANZAC's thoughts when they arrived in these distant ports. They would not have had previous experiences they could relate to.

Our transfer to our hotel got even worse at one point.  Our driver stopped and aid that he had a call from his office and he had to return. He pulled over and said that this guy will now take you to your hotel.  This appeared to be the start of a very real horror movie, starring me and my friend.  However we were not mugged, we were not injured,  what we were treated to was an exhibition of what a formula one driver can drive like.  Ross older Turkish gentlemen flew through the inner city streets, giving us advice about shops, traffic and how to deal with people asking for money on the streets.

He got us to our hotel with a minimum of tooting horns. Our journey from the airport to the hotel equated to 50 km and it took us two hours!  So all up from Melbourne to bed in a comfortable Istanbul hotel 23 hours.

This place looks sounds and smells so exciting,  the people that we have met have been so friendly. They know why we are here and they  respect our journey and we respect their country, culture and people. Just as the early ANZAC's respected their Turkish foe.