A little later than timetabled, the train rolled gentily into Istanbul's Sirecki station. I had finally managed to get a few hours of sleep after all the shennanigans at the border. Stepping off the train I bumped into a fellow Swiss countrywoman, Mirriam, who'd also travelled on the train except that she'd been on it since Belgrade. She was over here to study Turkish for a couple of months and since we had both arrived and were starving we had breakfast together near the station.

The weather in Istanbul was quite simply ghastly. It was cold, cloudy and raining non-stop. I walked to the Hostel I'd booked and by the time I'd arrived I was pretty much soaked through. Luckily the hostel were able to wash most of my clothes and I could shower and revitalise a little. Still the rain was falling incessantly and depite venturing out for lunch, I returned soon after as I just got soaked again! So I passed the afternoon away in the hostel and was disappointed to find it so quiet. Despite the fact that it's perfectly clean and frienly there just isn't anybody around and in the evening no-one seemed to have returned either - I checked with the reception who assured me it was full. It wasn't until the evening that I realised why the hostel didn't have any people around, because despite the very pleasant roof terrace the hostel owner is strict muslim and won't tolerate consumption of any alcohol on the premises! Hard luck - it'll just be a few days of detox I suppose.

Still there was one bright thing about the day amidst the depressing weather - on going down to my dorm to go to bed I found it to be filled with three gorgeous, blonde Canadian girls... and me. Lovely.