After leaving the chaos behind we headed to the nearest ferry terminal and headed across the Bosphorus Strait into the sunset. What I said before about east meeting west in Istanbul, I was alluding to the fact that Istanbul is cut in two by the Europe / Asia continental border. The Bosphorus Strait separates the two continents and up until this point we had been on the European side and were keen to see how the Asian half differs (if at all). By the way, that hat I keep wearing is Kristina's - I just think it rather suits me, kinda ;)

This would be Kristina's first time stepping onto the Asian continent, and my second after my one-night run around Singapore last year.

Nice sunsets over the Bosphorus.

We got off in Üsküdar, and the first thing to greet us after the 15-minute ferry was yet another mosque. Seriously, they're everywhere!

The Asian side's answer to Galata Bridge hehe.

We wandered along the promenade into the sunset for a bit before finding dinner.

Looking across to Aya Sofia, or the Blue Mosque, or neither, I don't know. Looking across to some mosque.

And looking across to the European side from the restaurant we got some dinner at. While here at about 8pm there was another sound off between the two closest mosques hehe - video of that here!

When buying our tokens for the ferry back at the port, I noticed a couple kids running between the ticket machines appearing to show great interest in what people were doing, like they were waiting for something. Again, any half-seasoned traveller will know what they were really doing, but at least two tourists didn't when one kid made a grab for their change and ferry tokens just dispensed from the machine and ran off with them to the group of beggars on the right there. One of them had previously made an unsuccessful grab for mine too after I made a grab for his hand before he could. Little bastards.

I mentioned before that our hotel was just around the corner from the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia - in fact it was right between the two and had a fourth-storey terrace with a perfect view of them both. The Blue Mosque on the left, Aya Sofia on the right.

Later that night at around 2am we were woken by a massive thunder storm rolling in. I grabbed the camera and shot out to enjoy the show. Now I'm one of these nerds who counts the number of seconds between a lighting strike and the following thunder clap to estimate how far away the storm actually is and what direction its moving in, and this one was rapidly coming right for us. Maybe two seconds after took the shot on the left of the pissing rain, the storm was evidently right on top of us and we had simultaneous lightning and thunder. When it hit, I had the inside of my elbow resting on the metal railing there (middle shot) having just taken that shot on the left, and I actually got a massive electric jolt from the lightning which shot straight up my arm and down my side! That combined with the scare you inevitably get from the lightning and thunder damn near had me pissing in my pants! I was pretty shaken up by that but still managed to immediately get the shot on the right of a flock of pigeons flying away from Aya Sofia after they'd all probably shit themselves too. Obviously I've no idea where the lightning strike actually hit, but if there was enough current in the air for at least some of it to earth via our balcony then it was bloody close by!

Not until after that happened did I notice the big metal poles pointing into the sky right behind me hahaha - major attractant for lightning! Had I noticed that earlier I wouldn't have been standing out there like an idiot taking photos hehe.

After the slightly dodgy weather on Saturday, Sunday turned out to be a good'un despite the forecast of rain all weekend.

Views from Eminönü ferry terminal beside Galata Bridge.

We had planned to head out to the Prince's Islands today, apparently a popular holiday spot for Instanbulians (or whatever you call them) about a 90-minute ferry ride away, but the ferry times out there weren't ideal after we fluffed about actually getting to the right terminal, and so we spent the day checking out some more of the Asian side of Istanbul, this time in Kadıköy. We headed into the back streets to get the hell away from that traffic.

Nice area to be a cat.

Business is booming.

Heading into the centre of town.

I said before that the mosques require covered shoulders and knees etc. Well it turns out that's common courtesy throughout the country, unbeknown to us and so Kristina got stared at by absolutely everybody today hahaha, especially before she put a top on ;)

After more wandering and another large beer, we concluded that the Asian side is similar but different to its European counterpart. Nowhere near as many people speak English on the Asian side, generally speaking the parts of it that we saw aren't as nice, and there seemed to be far fewer tourists. It's definitely worth a look though, as is the whole city!

Big Turkish feed at the restaurant adjoining our hotel - good stuff!

I always like to pick random stuff from the menu - stuff I've never tried or heard of before. Tonight, it was Raki, an anise-flavoured spirit very much like the Greek Ouzo.

Monday morning (another video of our 6am wake up call today here hehe). We headed back to the Blue Mosque to check out the inside. Pretty impressive I thought although all those cables coming down from the roof supporting lighting rig lets it down a bit. The Blue Mosque is referred to as such due to the thousands and thousands of blue handmade ceramic tiles that line its interior. More details about the interior here. We got to wander for a bit before being thrown out for midday prayer time.

Souvenir shopping hehe.

I'm pretty sure I didn't put myself down as a Mrs when I booked the flights, or Kristina for that matter but whatever.

And that was our weekend in Istanbul!