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Having got our domestic chores out of the way, we set off to enjoy the sights and smells of ancient Konstantinople (as the Greeks still call it!). Sedef acted as the tour guide and interpreter, and Nic acted as the official taster in every food stall! We were miffed to find that Nic had to pay full tourist rates for every museum and historical site, being mistaken as German, much to his distress! Sedef barely got away with paying local rates despite being Turkish… On one occasion the guard even demanded to see her Turkish ID card and scrutinised it closely! ” You speak Turkish very well, where did you learn it?” ” Thank you, in Istanbul, where did you learn yours?” :p
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We had a great break in Istanbul, which is a perfect fusion of east and west: saw all the famous sites, the Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar, Agia Sophia, Bosphorus, Egyptian Spice Bazaar, Topkapi Palace, as well as enjoying the local cuisine (and coffee!). Realising we were gradually becoming the great unwashed, we had haircuts and went to a hamam, to have all the dirt and grime off the road scrubbed off! It was great to be pampered as we laid on the hot marble slab opening up all the pores just before being lathered up into a giant walking soap bubble! Followed by a rigorous scrubbing which left both of us pink and glowing like new born babies!!! www.pinkbabiesonbents.com 😉
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Having covered 3500 kms we thought it was an ideal time to get the bikes serviced for the next leg of our tour, this next part would most likely be the hardest in terms of unforgiving terrain for our bikes – it would also be the longest stretch we would undertake where we would be solely reliable on our own bicycle repair skills. So off we wandered in search of a bike shop, to our surprise we accidentally found a well stocked serious bike shop just round the corner from our hotel! Anne Mustoe was right after all when she said that a bike shop miraculously materialises within 500 ms whenever you need one! Despite the gruelling mountains of leg 1 and the dust and grime of 3500kms our Optima bikes served us well – the usual wear and tear of most cycling was easily visible: gears out of sync, breakpads worn down (Sedef’s mostly!! Nic hasn’t used his much!! :p), and a few loose nuts and bolts. However we were pleased to hear that no major work was required apart from Sedef’s front hub bearings and Nic’s seat which had cracked during a tough uphill push. They even thoroughly cleaned the bikes – they were gleaming brand new when we picked them up (to match our new glowing skins!).
