I really hadn't expected to find Istanbul to be a modern city with good roads populated with modern cars, lots of trees and gardens, contemporary office buildings and shopping centres. Nor was I expecting it to have between 20 and 23 million people. That's Shaghai numbers! Apparently there are many millions of unrecorded residents and refugees but flying over it you can see the population 'heft' evidenced by multiple residential towers in the outer suburbs.
It reminds me of Athens' old town, Plaka. Ancient ruins dotted through the cobblestone streets, and the hawkers standing outside restaurants. But tourism is very important to Turkey so the people are friendly.
The ruins here are the original wall to protect the palace from intruders approaching from the sea.
I went for a walk along the coast and was surprised to come across a community of afternoon sun worshipper (mostly old blokes) so who sunbake their leathery over brown skin.
As you can see it's not sand but giant granite boulders. It's do clearly a regular hangout that some bring concrete along to fashion a smoother place to lie down.
Whereas others don't seem to care
There's also a number of stray cats and dogs living amongst the rocks.
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