Istanbul days and nights

Greeted by outrageously bright sunshine and 30+ degree heat with a dash of humidity, I immediately took a liking to Istanbul.

Okay, I am being dramatic again! I did like the weather, but getting ripped off as soon as we arrived (by an excessively nice [not so much in retrospect] middle aged man promising to give us a good deal to catch a taxi into the city) did dampen the initial liking-ness. However, as we continued to get ripped off [allegedly] throughout the entire week I came to accept it/care less.

We were there for a family reunion. Mum's family. 3 uncles and aunties (plus their significant other) and 5 cousins I had never met. My grandma that I had seen only once before in my life. Mum had not seen her brothers and sisters for THIRTY years. There were 21 of us in total - 5 brothers and sisters with their family and one cute granny. Needless to say it was emotional and amazing! Unfortunately I had a cold (thanks to the netherlandy "summer") for the first few days, which I then kindly passed with full force onto my "better half" [allegedly]. BUT, it was ok, we battled through to visit the bazaars, ancient mosques and palaces.

Below are some pics from the week... (also more will be put on facebook).