Day 17

Today was our second last day on tour and the realisation of this made us make the most of every minute of the day, cramming as much in as possible. We began by making our way to the Hagia Sophia Museum. The Hagia Sophia was initially a Roman Catholic Church built in the 560's but in 1453 it was taken over by the Ottomans and turned into a mosque. Because of its enormity we were not surprised to learn that it has the 5th largest dome in the world. The group was blown away by the building's beauty and amazing workmanship that went into the mosaics that created the pictures covering the walls.

We then hopped on the tram, which was more cramped than the Metro in Paris, and made our way to the Funicular, which took us to Taksim Square, known as the political heart of Turkey. It was from here that we walked down a 3km mall full of shops! Mr Croft only gave the group an hour to get to the end of the street and this proved not to be long enough for some of us. Although it gave Ms Miller and Mrs Hanns' groups enough time to enjoy a Starbucks coffee and cake. After a recharge Ms Miller went into the Adidas shop and bought a pair of new joggers! The sales lady was so surprised at how quickly she picked the shoes- so were we!

After the group had made the trek down the street to the Galata Tower and Megan had copped a soccer ball to the face, thanks to Lucas, we made our way to a restaurant located under the Galata Bridge. This restaurant's speciality was fish so most of the group ordered fish! Luckily Tahlia did not as she took one look at Lisa and Kyah's and had to make a run for the toilet to spew!! The rest of lunch was very entertaining as the waiters were extremely friendly but the fish was served with scales, which some of the group didnt know and ended up with a mouthful of scales- YUK! 

To finish off the afternoon we (of course) had to do some last minute shopping at the Spice Markets. Here we were able to buy Turkish delight and every spice imaginable. The markets also sold Turkish tea cup sets and this brought out the cultural side in some of the boys. Now they cannot wait to get home and have a tea party with their Turkish Tea Sets. After our shopping spree we walked back to the hotel to start packing our bags! 

Being our last night on tour Mr Croft booked an extremely extravagant and fancy restaurant called the Sarnic Restaurant, which was was once used as a cistern. We enjoyed some delicious food and some beautiful live music played by a man on the piano. Tahlia also thought she would change things up a bit and order her dessert for entree and of course this worked quite well for her. With Fraser and myself (Megan) scoring Mr Crofts choice of restaurant, he ended up with a total score of 70 out of 70. All the food was amazing and we gave bonus points for the entertainment. This makes Crofty the winner of My Tour's Restaurant Rules and we believe that was very well deserved, he has been wonderful. Now everyone is getting ready for a good night's sleep for a big day tomorrow.

By Fraser and Megan

For more pictures of the tour please visit Mr Bylund's photo blog at jebx4.tumblr.com