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Istanbul may be one of my favorite places on the planet, but it's rather surprised me coming back here for a second time. I seem to remember in June that the city greeted me as an exotic first taste of the Orient, a place that struck me as distinct and remote from the safe and familiar currents of European life. Oddly, I've had precisely the opposite impression on returning here from India. I've been quite overwhelmed by how very European it feels, even the Grand Bazaar which I remembered as seeming labyrinthine and faintly intimidating now strikes me as ordered, clean and remarkably polite. I bought a Fez hat earlier today, and when I firmly halved the price quoted to me by the shopkeeper he didn't even attempt to haggle further. I felt rather like the bloke in Monty Python's 'Life of Brian' - slightly cheated because nobody wanted to bargain me. Clearly, I've toughened my technique without realizing it through my various dealings with Indian taxi drivers and others of their ilk.

The past few days have been a welcome break from overlanding and it's been particularly nice having a friend pop out to see me for the weekend from England. I also got a progress report on the behaviour of my cats who seem to have been up to a fair bit of mischief in my absence. We did a couple of the big sights such as the Hagia Sophia, which always leaves me awestruck and capable of becoming deeply boring on its prime importance in the history of both Christian and Islamic architecture. Mostly though, we've been hanging out in fish restaurants, draining a fair few Efes beers, and generally poking around various obscure Byzantine churches in search of medieval mosaics. All rather fun really if you're into that kind of thing.

Tomorrow I head off to Gallipoli with a whole new bunch of fellow travelers, new drivers and even a new truck - this one's called Bentley. On first meeting the group seems noticeably older in average age than at any stage before, though it's too early to say whether that means I'm going to have to be on my best behaviour for the next few weeks. Let's hope not.