Our final day in Istanbul began the way all our days had begun….
…with the epic butter mountain at breakfast! 🙂
After we had eaten and done the obligatory mad rush to pack and leave the room, we stashed our suitcases at the hotel, and headed out to Dolmabahce Palace. This was recommended to me by a cousin who had visited Istanbul, as an example of insane uber-grandness, and it certainly lived up to that!
There was a long queue for tickets when we got there, which was annoying but at least the view was great.
There was also a long wait to get in as they only let a few people in at a time. When we got to the front we also realised that you have to go as part of a guided tour, which was annoying as I really don’t like guided tours! I know they are way more informative and everything, I just hate being told what to look at and for how long when I’m on holiday!
It got more irritating when, after putting our little blue shoe covers on, we were told that there were no photos allowed inside!
Had it not been for this blog, I probably would have been quite zen about it but it turns out that “no photos” is the worst thing you can say to a blogger, and I was miffed!
I also totally flouted the rule and tried to take as many pictures as I could without being noticed.
Consequently, all my pictures are slightly blurry, and frequently involve the underside of someone’s chin, but still! I’m a rebel without a cause! I’m a donkey on the edge! I AM BLOGGER HEAR ME ROAR!
It was incredibly grand and extravagant. Apparently, building it actually contributed to the bankruptcy of the country! It was much more European than the heavily Ottoman influenced Topkapi, having been built much later on (in the 1800s) when the “refined”, luxurious European style was much more in fashion.
The chandeliers were amazing…
The library was lovely…
The grounds were fabulous…
More ‘Christmas tree’ railings! They were everywhere!:
I would say that at least 50% of all the young girls I saw were wearing these flower crowns, and they were selling them everywhere!
We passed these vibrant rainbow steps on the tram and I made my boyfriend get off so we could take pictures on them. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea so there was a queue of vain baffoons like myself waiting for the steps to empty. In the end, the people before us took so long, and other, less polite people didn’t bother to wait so they never emptied and there are loads of random people in all my photos…
And cats! So many cats!
I was wearing:
Pink M&S trench, which looked pretty cool against the steps, though I say so myself.
M&S flamingo shirt
M&S treggings (Ugh I’ve done it again, I do wear other brands sometimes!)
Office booties.
Sublime necklace.
River Island sunglasses.
Love bracelet from M&S (dammit!)
I was dressing solely for comfort here as I was heading straight to the airport. I always rely on colour and bling to make my comfy travel outfits a bit more exciting than a tracksuit.
I never realised that I walked funny until these photos… Why are my legs always sideways?……. On the plus side, I appear to have done something weird to the photo on the right which makes me look really tall and leggy! Score 🙂
Apparently, they have rainbow steps like these all over Istanbul, (see here for the story).
I adored them, they are just so darn cheerful!
After the obligatory million pictures with cats (and truth be told, cats make me nervous! I am definitely more of a goldfish person), we headed back to Sultanahmet for our last supper. We went to a restaurant called Khorasani, which was, by far, the best meal we ate there! Had we eaten there first, I doubt we’d have gone anywhere else. It was so good! Plus, it was pretty, and the service was great. I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to Istanbul!
Then we rushed back to our lovely hotel to get our bags and off we went. Back home. To the land of gloomy weather and sup-par lamb shish. 😦
It was an amazing trip though! So glad I finally went! 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Love,
The Styletterie
The Styletterie 