"I don't want to go" said Julie as she woke up before running to the toilet to vomit. I'd not seen her this anxious before a flight in quite a while. Perhaps it was the suddeness of it all. Up until two weeks ago we didn't think we were going to Istanbul. We had booked months earlier but decided to cancel because with a trip to California coming up soon we couldn't afford the time nor the money. But, because of Easy Jet's non-existent cancelation policy and extortionate admin charges, (it would have cost us more to change the flight dates than it would to simply book another flight!!) we had just given up on them.

Then from out of the blue they had a rescheduling of the flight's timetable which meant we were able to make changes free of their charges. It was an opportunity not to be missed and we amended our trip to be a more affordable 3 night stay instead of the expensive five nights we had originally planned.

Before we knew it we were having to get some Turkish lira and book a last minute hotel. We did our homework and scoured Trip Advisor booking a highly rated hotel in the old district.

Once Julie regained control of her gag reflex our next dilema as we prepared to leave the Hilton South Terminal was "Do we go commando or inside out?" (Yes, we are talking pants.) Having already checked-in our suitcases last night in Gatwick's useful twilight service we noticed this morning we hadn't packed any clean underwear for today. For the record we decided to go "inside out" because as Julie put it "I don't want to die without my knickers on!"

We breezed through into the departures lounge where we didn't have much time. We grabbed a breakfast on the run and a few snacks for later from Pret-a-Manger and also our customary bottle of good luck champagne, for which we underwent the strictest of security checks having to produce our boarding passes and passport! Did we not look over 18 or something?

Anyway, before we knew it we were making the long walk to the gate.

The shakes had returned for Julie despite having taken more than the usual amount of diazepam. Perhaps she remembered the flight to Dubrovnik in May where we seemed to hit a flock of pelicans on the way up that violently shook the whole plane. Once on board and after a smooth take off she seemed no better, unable to relax. She distracted herself by playing her favourite game on the iPad, Plants v Zombies where she protects her home from a huge wave of marauding zombies by planting vegetables.

We had a surprisingly long flight ahead of us but with a "favourable tail wind" according to the pilot we made it in three and a half hours. Julie was impressed by his posh accent. "I've got a bit more confidence when they sound like a proper pilot!" she said.

As we prepared to land Julie tensed up again fearing the worse. Her anxiety levels were going through the roof as she just couldn't bare it.

Relief wasn't far away. We landed smoothly. Julie held her breath until the plane showed signs of slowing down and was certain of not carreering off the end of the runway before she could allow herself to let go of her fears. A wave of relief and excitement took hold of her.

"I really thought that was going to be the one" she admitted once the plane had come to a stop "I just had this horrible feeling that it was going to be the one that crashed"

Thankfully Julie's no psychic.

We made our way inside the terminal where we had to pay 25 YTL (Turkish Liras) or £10 each for an entry visa before passing through the immigration checks. In no time Julie had reclaimed our suitcases whilst I was otherwise engaged at the airport's finest porcelaine facilities.

We were at Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, Istanbul's "other" airport. It was self-proclaimed as the "world's fastest growing" airport but it was also an hour's drive away from the city. To keep the costs down we decided to catch the regular shuttle bus from outside the terminal rather than take a taxi.

The Havas bus was only 13 lira each. Good value for money.

We almost got fooled into another shuttle service which would have cost us 30 lira each. They had a booth inside the terminal. His sales pitch almost worked but he lost my trust when he said the Havas bus wouldn't leave for an hour and then would take two hours to get to the city. We walked away and found the Havas bus outside.

Within ten minutes we were on our way. "It won't be leaving for an hour .. my arse. What a liar!" I smugly said justifying our decision.

Our first impressions of Istanbul weren't favourable. The suburbs were an ugly hotch potch of high rise buildings. Painting them in bright colours didn't make them look any less depressing. The view was improved every now and again by a delicate dome and minaret of a neighbourhood mosque but for the most part it was just a concentration of concrete.

We made good time and soon reached the Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridge spanning the Bosphorous river. On the left bank was a sequence of fortified walls known as Rumelihisari or Fortress of Europe and also nicknamed the "throat-cutter" as it was built by the invading Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror.

I got quite excited with our first glimpse of the old Constantinople. Although technically I suppose it was the birth of Istanbul.

The concrete jungle returned as we drove through the outskirts of the city through the districts of Ortakoy, Besiktas and then Beyoglu our final destination.

The bus terminated in Taksim square, a large sprawling space where the whole city converged. Somewhere in this chaotic hub was an entrance to the city's metro.

As we struggled against the tide of commuters I could see Julie's will to live rapidly drain out of her.

With hindsight we should have perhaps splashed out on a taxi from Taksim to our hotel but instead we lugged our heavy suitcase down the steps beneath the square to get onto the city's transport system. The first leg of the journey was on a modern Funicular train but Julie wasn't feeling the fun. It was all a bit overwhelming for her.

The funicular stopped at the bottom of the hill at Kabatas where we began the next leg of our epic journey on a tram to Sultanahmet. The E1 route began from here so the tram was empty when we boarded. It soon filled up with each stop and by the time we approached ours to get off it was frighteningly full. Weighed down with our suitcases it seemed impossible for us to get ourselves to the door before it moved on to the next stop. We were getting a little stressed!

We were still metres away from the exit when the doors opened. We just had to go for it. I picked up both the suitcases and suddenly turned French saying "Pardon! Pardon!". Miraculously like Moses parting the waves the tightly packed commuters moved out of the way and we fell out just in time.

The final leg of our journey was on foot. We had landed on a street called Divan Yolu Caddesi in the heart of the historic Sultanahmet area. Our hotel was only a short distance away down a side street called Klodfarer.

Tired and a little grumpy we labouriously dragged our luggage along the busy pavement. Our mood lifted slightly when we past several little stalls selling Spirographs to grown men who were amazed by the pretty patterns. What was all that about?

I remember spirographs as a child in the sevenies. Have they just reached Turkey now or are they enjoying a retro comeback? It was such a bizare sight.

At the end of Klodfarer we finally reached Sultanahmet Park Hotel.

The red carpet was out for our arrival. We stepped up to the reception desk and handed over our booking confirmation. He looked at us confused, then worried and then relieved when he realised we had walked into the wrong hotel. We should have been next door!

Somehow we had walked straight past the main entrance.

We eventually stepped inside our hotel where we were met by a very chilled out man in a grey polyester suit.

After confirming our details and taking our passports he handed over the key to room 302. "It's on the third floor" he said as he lead us towards the elevator. "We'll bring the luggage up" he added.

When the door opened to the elevator Julie refused to step inside it. It was very compact. We decided to walk up the staircase much to the manager's amusement. By the time we reached our room it was the chambermaid who was coming out of the lift struggling with our two suitcases.

We opened the door and our heart sank. We had paid extra on bookings.com to reserve a room described as "Double with Sea View".

It failed on both accounts. It was a twin bed room and the view was of the fire escape and the tree tops.

"No, we booked a room with a large bed" we tried to explain to the chambermaid. "OK" she said then began re-arranging the furniture. She was struggling a bit but we had no inclination to help. We just stood and watched as she huffed and puffed.

Before we could ask " ... and the sea view?" she left.

It would have been interesting to see what she would have done then? Chop the bloody trees down?

Before unpacking we took our complaint down to the manager who was spectacularly unsympathetic. "No, you paid for a standard room" he said pointing at the €122 rate ignoring the rate for tonight quoted at €142 and that the booking confirmation had "Double Room with Sea View" clearly printed in bold san serif font.

We asked if he had a double room available but the hotel was full but for another twin room on the 4th floor on the front. There wasn't anything we could about it so we gave up in the end.

At the back of the hotel there was supposed to be a walled garden area and we thought perhaps we could just sit outside and relax for a bit before we head back out into the busy streets.

As we walked out the manager said "Uh, it is closed". He wasn't kidding. Tables and chairs and rolled up carpet were stacked up like it was a storeroom. Another disappointment.

He kindly offered us a complementary welcome drink bur we refused his hospitality, we weren't in a good mood. We returned to our room closing the curtains on our tree tops view and began to unpack. It didn't take us long to find more faults.

The room was so small we couldn't find any space to store our empty suitcases. They had to be stacked in front of the wardrobe which was blocking our access not only to the wardrobe but to the fire escape door.

The bathroom was even smaller. Only one person at a time could fit inside. If someone was sat on the toilet then the door could not be opened without causing an injury to the resident's right knee. And another thing ... the step into the room was badly cracked and loose which was a hazard.

At least the shower unit looked new and was clean as were the hastily re-arranged bed sheets.

But then the air conditioning didn't work and there wasn't a signal on the tiny television on the wall. Even the fact that they had only provided one pillow each was annoying us. Our moods were darkening by the minute. This was supposed to be #6 from 997 of Istanbul hotels on Tripadvisor. We felt very let down.

We decided to take advantage of the hotel's best feature, and one they couldn't lie about; it's location. So we headed out for a walk.

A short walk down hill brought us to the Hippodrome a large public garden where once stood a 100,000 seater elongated stadium built for chariot racing and other Roman sports. Only the central line still exists.

The most striking of the columns in line was the Egyptian Obelisk. Emperor Constantine brought it here from Luxor as part of a huge building project to turn this city into the new capital of the Roman Empire.

He named it rather immodestly after himself, Constantinople.

The perfect obelisk stood on a granite plinth with a carved bas relief of Emperor Theodosius I standing in the Royal Box or kathisma holding a wreath ready to crown the champion. It was amazing to look at this snap shot of what used to take place here 1500 years ago.

Flavius Theodosius was the last ruler of the great Roman Empire. Following his death it was divided into a Western and Eastern Roman Empire. Within a century the decline and fall of the Western empire was swift whilst the Eastern empire flourished. It became known as the Byzantine Empire and survived a further thousand years until the 15th century when the Ottoman Turks invaded.

Next to the obelisk was a street vendor selling roasted chestnuts and chargrilled sweetcorn. We weren't hungry but bought a corn on the cob to share just for the experience. We walked around the hippodrome nibbling our corn like two little squirrels.

Apparently one of the columns here was missing, stolen during the sacking of the city by the Christian Crusaders when they attacked their fellow Christian Byzatine rulers. It was the 4th crusade and as always the sequels are never as good as the original.

The column was topped by four bronze horses which can now be found decorating St.Mark's Basilica in Venice.

Alongside the Hippodrome stood the Sultan Ahmed Mosque also known as the Blue Mosque; quite possibly the most famous mosque in the world. We didn't have a clear view from here. A short distance away was another monumental buidling the Haigha Sophia. It was getting late in the afternoon and with scheduled closing times fast approaching we agreed that it would be better to postpone visiting these incredible sights until tomorrow when we could spend more time on them.

One attaction that wasn't going to take us too long to walk around was the Basilica Cisterns known in Turkish as the Yerebatan Sarayi, the sunken palace. It was conveniently positioned between the Haigha Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

We joined a queue outside. I then saw something that if had happened to me would have made me cry. The lady behind me dropped her camera. It crashed to the floor. Pieces of plastic and batteries flew in all directions. I felt sick just thinking about "what if that was me?"

For me a big part of visiting somewhere new is capturing new experiences through the camera. I would have been distraught if it had happened to me.

Fortunately it didn't and I was glad I had my camera with me went we descended into the dim light. The sight of the submerged columns reflected in the shallow water was absolutely breathtaking.

It was quite busy down here especially at the photo hot spots but I waited my turn to get to the front to take my pictures.

There was apparently 386 columns creating this vast vaulted underworld. With water dripping from above and a hushed silence it created such a surreal atmosphere down here beneath the city.

We followed a wooden walkway that lead us around.

At the far left corner, following the signs came to the heads of Medusa, the evil Greek gorgon who could turn a man to stone if he so dared to look into her eyes. These heads had been rolled onto its side or upside down and formed the base for two large columns.

This was obviously another hot spot as we shuffled along in line for our few seconds in front of her gaze before moving on. One or two took longer than was polite. I don't know if they were trying to be funny and pretend they'd been turned to stone but they were causing quite a jam.

It eventually became our turn and I found myself staying longer than was polite.

I was just blown away by the thought that I was looking into the eyes of Medusa that would have struck fear into the hearts of the citizens of a 500BC Greek city from which they were plundered.

I moved on towards the second head. In Greek mythology Medusa had two lesser known sisters Stheno and Euryale. Perhaps one of these heads was one of them.

Julie waited patiently as I took more photographs of the snake-haired Medusa.

We then slowly made our way back towards the exit.

There was a small cafe on the way out. We thought about stopping for a sub-terraenian cofee but instead we surfaced and found ourselves gravitating instead to a bar called the Sultanahmet Pub.

We sat outside on the pavement with a cold glass of Effes beer and a bowlful of delicious pistachios.

We assumed the nuts were complimentary but when we came to pay they were itemised seperately and we paid 4.90 lira for them. We actually didn't mind the scam because they were tasty plus it was a great spot on the corner of Divanyolu Caddesi for people watching.

We sat for half an hour thumbing through the pages of our guide book (Lonely Planet & DK Eyewitness) shortlisting recomended restaurants for this evening. Our next move was to do some menu reading.

We didn't get very far before sitting down again, this time on a wooden bench in a park called Sultanahmet Meydani, an area between Haigha Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

It was the captivating view that stopped us in our tracks.

The sight of mosque was truly breathtaking with its succesion of half-domes rising up into the crowning cupola. With its six minarets silhouetted against the fading light and the fountain in the foreground we were both suspended in awe.

"Wow" I so eloquently remarked.

Behind us was the less attractive but no less inspiring Haigha Sophia. It may have been more basic in its design but this monumental structure was mostly built in the 6th century over a thousand years before the Blue Mosque!

We were greatly looking forward to tomorrow when we had planned to spend the day visiting these two fantastic monuments and the Topkapi Palace.

Eventually we moved on and went looking for a restaurant on a street called Utangac Sokagi. We never did find it but we did stumblel across the Four Seasons Hotel. This 5 star luxury hotel was house in a former prison but it looked more like a former palace.

It looked so wonderful and inviting, so we walked inside to have a look around. It was even better on the inside. The interior design was stunning. This wasn't helping our terrbile opinion of our hotel!

Julie checked with reception to see if they had any rooms available and to our surprise they a few vacant suites. We were that close to signing up but the cheapest rate was €440 room only! We quickly headed for the exit.

Another time perhaps.

We continued to follow the map down hill to a street called Yeni Akbyik Caddessi, a road filled with countless tourist friendly restaurants. Both guide books concurred that Albura Kathisma was the best of the bunch.

We checked out its menu and were suitably impressed by their choice for the descerning vegetarian amognst us. They had even gone to the effort of identifying which dishes were suitable by marking them with a "V".

So we reserved a table for later in the evening. With a few hours until then we decided to return to our hotel.

On the way back we came across the Arasta Bazaar also known as the Cavalry Bazaar because the collection of souvenir shops are houised in what once were stables for the Royal Cavalry.

It was immediately below and behind the Blue Mosque.

Strolling through here was a calm and relaxed experience not at all like the souks you would associate with a bazaar. These stores selling carpets, handicrafts, jewellery were all quite upmarket and weren't into the pressure selling so it was a great place for a spot of window shopping.

The walk back to the hotel was all up hill. Along an attractive cobbled street winding its way up the hill in the shadow of the Blue Mosque we came across a very quaint hotel. Its appearance was of a very traditional wooden built Ottoman home.

We liked the look of it so much that we popped inside to check their rates. At only €80 per night including breakfast it was good value for money.

It felt like we had unearthed a hidden gem. It was called Hotel Sultan Hill on Tavukhane Sokagi. They were full tonight but they had room tomorrow and the day after.

We gave some serious consideration to relocating here but ultimately the fact that we had already booked our stay with Sultanahmet Park Hotel securing it with a credit card and agreeing to their 48 day notice cancelation policy meant that we would still have to pay whether we stayed there or not. So we were pretty much handcuffed where we were. If we were ever to return to Istanbul however we would definetly consider staying here.

Back in our own hotel room we connected to the wireless internet which was available free of charge in the room and it actually worked first time. Things were slowly improving! We skyped Hannah, speaking to her through Julie's iPad. It looked hilarious as Julie held the iPad like a giant phone. The quality of the line was a little intermittent but we managed to check that everyone was fine.

We only had an hour RnR before we had to leave for our 8pm reservation. It took a lot less time than anticipated to walk down hill to restaurant Albura Kathisma and we arrived a little early. As it happened we needn't have reserved. Whilst they were reasonably busy they still had plenty of tables free.

We sat outside at the table right on the far corner looking out onto the busy street. A romantic position it wasn't because the road was just so busy with rush hour traffic manouvering their way down the street.

For the main course Julie was very content with her choice of chicken kebab especially as it was served with a little baked potato wrapped in foil.

I ordered a dish called Türulu Türlulu, a chickpea, tomato and green pepper stew served on a bed of creamy aubergine. It wasn't very sophisticated but once again it tasted so comforting.

With a beer and 50cl of wine the price of 96 lira wasn't too extortionate.

We left the restaurant calling along the way at a cornershop for some water for the room. (For a €142 I would have expected complimentary water at the hotel but no there was none!)

The shop was called Mavis Gida which we had a little laugh about because a character from the British Soap Institution Coronation Street was called Mavis and she often worked in a cornershop.

We imagined a spin-off where Mavis goes to Turkey on holiday, meets a waiter and marries him despite the forty years age difference and then sets up shop with her life savings. I think we've got the begining of a classic soap opera there!

The uphill return leg was hard work at the end of a long day but we were rewarded half way with a stunning view of Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosque illuminated against the dark sky.

Walking up Tavukhane Sokagi we stared longingly inside the inviting Hotel Sultan Hill. We decided to just "make the most of it" with regards to our own hotel. "It's only somewhere to rest our head" said Julie and she was right.

Although even resting our head was difficult. Not only because the extra pillows we requested had not been delivered to our room but by virtue of us sleeping on two twin beds pushed together I kept on hitting my head against the light switch which would normally be positioned between the beds.

I spent the first hour waking myself up switching on the bright lights every time I rolled over. We were going to need a lot of patience with this hotel.