Departing Cappadocia, our souls filled with glorious sunrises and mystic dervishes, we start our day at 8:30am post breakfast. Setting out for a 780kms journey to the heart of the Ottoman empire and one of the most important historical cities of our times, about which it has been said, “If the world were one state, Istanbul would be its capital”.

Leaving Cappadocia was quick and easy as the road out of Urgup merges with a local highway in a couple of kilometres. We drove some way to merge onto the D750, a highway with 4 wide lanes on both sides,  silky smooth tarmac, prudent drivers, all moving at 140kms per hour. I drove half the distance while Tushar drove the rest. Where we could, we set the cruise control on our Landcruiser and enjoyed the smooth driving experience watching landscapes change from rural to urban and bypassing Ankara, the sprawling capital city of Turkey. Including bio breaks, lunch, tea breaks and 2 refuelling stops we finished the journey in 9 hours. This included some hair-raising driving across the entire stretch of Istanbul. We crossed from the Asian side to the edge of the European side as our hotel was in the Karakoy locality of the city. Our convoy of 10 cars managed the task supremely well given rash bus and cab drivers of Istanbul city on a Saturday evening. Driving across the Sultan Mehmet bridge we marvelled at the mighty Bosporus sea…..such breathtakingsetting for a glorious city. 

We celebrated the end of leg 1 of our mammoth journey by celebrating in the chic Mükellef terrace restaurant with views over European Istanbul including the Hagia Sophia. As you do in Istanbul, post dinner we headed to Güllüoglu, the most famous Turkish Baklava shop. We savoured the many delicacies, but our firm favourite was the chocolate Baklava. Layers of flaky left over baklava pastry, soaked overnight in full creamy milk, drizzled with cacao, served with a dollop of cream. Food heaven.

The night was not over yet, as we were strolling around the Karakoy neighbourhood and upto the golden horn of the city, we ran into 2 buskers, playing and singing badly, they were funny and very persuasive. Mischievous Karl and Tushar got them to sing Rina Baby, Rina baby, which led to me paying them 50 lira’s to stop singing! On our way back to the hotel, we stopped for the best Fish wraps at Balik Durum Mehmet Usta for a ridiculous price of 15lira / 0.70p. As we were getting ours made after queuing for 30 mins, the girl standing next to me said, “I’m sorry but this is not a fish wrap, it’s the most amazing fish wrap in the world!”