In some ways, Turkish cuisine isn't a bad choice for me because the main courses tend to be very similar from meal to meal (grilled meat with some combination of salad, grilled veg, flatbread and bulgur wheat), with the more interesting variations coming in the starters or meze plates. Eating out is very reasonable in Istanbul, certainly compared to London and the price of our meals didn't vary much, even between small, low-key cafes and smarter restaurants. At most places, we paid about 9-18L (about £3-6) for a main course and about 6L (£2) for a meze.

We were in Istanbul for five days and made two day trips during that time. If we had spent more time in Topkapı Palace, we would only have had time to go on one excursion, but the weather was so nice for most of our holiday that we wanted to spend as much time as possible outdoors.

Kınalıada, the small island

I didn't have time to blog while I was in Istanbul, so I'm now putting together a short series of posts that highlight some of the things we did. My initial, in-a-nutshell post is here and I will also be writing about some of our excursions outside the city and some of our eating and drinking experiences.

Sunset over the Bosphorus and SoGoHo

After five days exploring Istanbul and its environs, I got home late last night. The gorgeous Turkish sunshine, meant the cold London weather was a bit of a shock to the system, although not much of a surprise. Despite feeling rather photographically uninspired during my trip, I still managed to take almost 400 photos, and I'll be sharing a few photos and experiences from my trip once I've gone through them all.

Istanbul by night, from the Galata Tower

Other than my brief visit to Bristol in March, I haven't managed to fit in much travelling so far this year and it's definitely time for another adventure. And today, I'm heading off to Istanbul, so I can experience two continents in one day, Turkish delight and, of course, the joys of agglutinative languages. I had planned to put together a proper what's-in-my-suitcase post but by the time I escaped from work, it was starting to get dark and I needed to eat dinner. Also, some of the clothes I'm taking needed a wash and aren't yet ready for packing. Instead, I've taken a few photos of some of the things I'm taking for a five-day trip to Turkey, starting with make-up and toiletries: