Let's get ready for our trip around Turkey

Today we move to the tour hotel called The And, and it's a lot nicer and central. We find an upmarket coffee place and decide to sit. They give you a chocolate in the shape of a spoon on the saucer. Booka has taken us to a new level of maps, as she whips out the iPad as we go, and it points you in the right direction. We visit the Grand Bazaar and manage to find a post office to send our postcards, which are probably still making their way back. Of course, the place is packed. We see jewels and rugs ("please come in and see our rugs lady, and we can have some tea and talk about them") and anything you want. We decide that we need to get some smaller bags for the trip, as our cases are too big, so we wheel and deal and get some backpacks. They tell you can even get 100% genuine fake - how good is that. I find this lovely little spot for lunch and we all agree to sit. It's tiny with a little table and chairs, and we sit with all these men. The Turkish championship football league was played last night and the winning team's song is playing, and it's a really good tune that we bob along to. We enjoy fresh lamb and chicken shish which is served with salad, and I take another yoghurt drink. I'm dying for my Turkish bath. I don't take a recommendation from DC and stupidly take the advice from the old hotel man as he tells me it's much better. So I go downstairs and this guy who looks like a pimp shows me around and turns on the lights as I was the only one there. He offers me the works and I take it. This young Turkish woman comes out and she insists I get in the shower!! Then I'm in the sauna, then the shower, and then the ice plunge pool. I'm in the stream room and apparently I still need to shower, and then the plunge pool again. Obviously I'm not clean enough. Finally we hit the marble room and she soaps me up and removes an incredible amount of dead skin. I'm then on a couch with some cay and then off to my oil massage. Even though it may have been an undercover brothel, it did the job of getting some feeling back in those legs after France and Italy and all the walking. I get back in time for our group tour meeting. We meet Ozan who is our leader and he gives us a run down and tells us about him. We are 12 in total.  We have 3 couples Newcastle (NSW), the three of us, and two sisters and their mum from the US. We all head out and have a get to know you dinner and we have the feast of Turkish platters, and we are already laughing with our new friends.