Day 14 - Saturday - Ankara to Istanbul>

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Oh dear. This was 'D-Day'. This was the Dreaded Day of Travel. The longest stretch that we would cover in the holiday in one day was upon us. No one was looking forward to this - 8 hours or so on the bus to get to Istanbul.

To pass the time I tried to catch up with my diary notes, did some reading, listened to the personal stereo and had a chuckle at the many people on the bus whose heads were lolling about into the aisles before being quickly jerked back to the upright sleeping position.

En route we encountered another brief storm. As was typical of the storms we'd seen do far, it came and went very quickly, but while it was there you knew about it! I had a peculiar experience of looking ahead and seeing the rain run off the windscreen in sheets, looking left to see dark, dark skies frequently enlivened by lightning flashes, and to the other side bright skies with patches of blue poking through wispy white clouds. Was this the same sky?

We arrived in Istanbul at 2 o'clock, as predicted to the very minute! This gave us enough time to set our bags down and head back out to see some sights missed first time around.