Whilst it had stopped raining, the weather was still pretty cold and grey as I emerged from the hostel to explore the city. Istanbul is quite unique in that it is split between two continents by the Bosphorous strait. The old town where I am staying and on the European continent is where most of the action is but the split does mean that the city has beautiful coastlines everywhere. But Istanbul's history dates back to Byzantium when Byzas and his colonists sailed up the Bosphorous in 657BC. It's probably more famous though as constantinople as it became known during Roman times and being named after Emperor Constantine. Indeed he even declared the city "New Rome" and it served as the capital of his empire from 330AD.

Most of the remaining architechture in Istanbul, however, dates from the Ottoman empire. Seeing himself as the conqueror, in 1451 Mehmet the Conqueror pretty much re-built the city but once again chose to make the city his empire's commerical and cultural centre. So, in true tourist fashion I had to visit the stunnignly large Blue Mosque built by Sultan Ahmet in the early 1600s and then head over the road to the Aya Sofya Museum which was originally built by Roman Emperor Justinian to show off the grandeur of his empire, then it was converted by Mehmet the Conqueror into a mosque and several large miniarets were added, before Ataturk in 1935 proclaimed it a museum. Both were amazing architecture and their large domes and tall minarets dominate Istanbul's skyline.

I wodner some more around the city, before deciding to do one of my favourite and most expenive hobbies... carpet shopping. Sadly I have a fascination for carperts and can't get enough of them. Over here it means sipping apple tea while staring in admiration at each of the carpets is rolled out in front of you until a large stack has built up in front of you, and interestingly also in front of the door ensuring your attention remains focued in the shop. It wasn't until sometime that I finally found the carpet i'd been looking for, and once I saw it I knew that I had to buy it - depite the carpet seller Ahmet, trying to convince me that other ones were more beautiful or interesting.

Ahmet had been the most enthusiastic of sellers I had met and even though I had said I was interested by the prayer carpet he showed me early on, I had to be given the whole lecture on carpet making, symbols and Turkish knottage. Several apple teas later and a with a bit of hagglin, I'd got the price down to about 100 GBP - expensive considering I'd bought a carpet in India for half that, but this was Turkey afterall. Indeed even after I had paid for the carpet I still wasn't allowed to go and turkish hospitality extended further as Ahmet and his family invited me for an early evening dinner of what seemed to be a spicy tomato and pepepr omlettes mopped up with huge morsels of bread.

I left the carpet shop feeling poor, but stuffed and made my way to the harbour. It's been over a month since I have watch a footaball game live, and the temptation proved too great as Turkey's best team, Fenerbahce were playing Sivaspor at home. It was a short ferry ride to the other continent and then a 10 minute walk following the 50,000 or so supporters to the stadium. I managed to find a ticket for 20 TYL (about 8 GBP) despite the fact that touts would have me believe it was sold out in order that i buy their ticket at 100 TYL! I kitted myself out with scarf and hat and made my way to the stadium. It was pretty haphazard an organisation in fact and i was heardly searched as I went through. Waiting in the queue I met a guy called Kolnya who sort of took me under his wing and along with his mates we found seats and he proceeded to explain to me most of the history of the team and its players.

What then followed was not merely a match of football I have become so used to watching at home. The fact that Fenerbache won comfortably 3-0 was nothing in comparison to the truly amazing atmosphere. If you want to see some Turkish culture and tradition, look no further than the football stadium. The supporters clearly couldn't give a jot as to what was happening on the pitch. Instead they had come to sing and chant their love for Fenerbache. We spent most of our match on our feet chanting, then doing numerous mexican waves, followed by each stand saying either "yellow", "blue", "champions" or "Fenerbahce" in order. It was probably the best support I'd ever been in and any sound the 500 or so Sivaspor supporters made was drowned out.

Leaving the stadium was also a surreal experience. Not only was I greeted by several salesmen trying to sell me another scarf, water, sandwiches or newspapers, but the sound of the Muslim call to prayer also wafted through the air. It was perfect timing for the supporters, many of whom the darted into the nearby mosque (supporters' garb still on) to say their prayers. I hurried back however to catch the last ferry back to Old Istanbul. Wearing my scarf and hat ensured I had lots of friendly attention, except this time it wasn't from carpet sellers, but from guys asking me the score in Turkish! So all in all an expensive but very enjoyable day!