Yes Andrew VOLUNTARILY ate artichoke!

The last day of our tour was also one of our earliest starts with a 6:30am departure. From Ankara we drove the five and a half hours back to Istanbul for an afternoon of culinary delights.

The driver dropped us off in Taksim Square, and we said farewell to good old Willy as this is where he and the bus were leaving us for good. From Taksim Sq we walked down Istiklal St to our restaurant for lunch. Lunch itself was farely average.

After lunch we were met by a woman named Gamze Ineceli who is one of the owners of a restaurant in Istanbul called Leb-i derya. Gamze took us on a walk through the fresh food market in the area, selecting produce for our dinner that evening at her restaurant. She bought artichokes, a herb she called "sand fire", lamb backstrap from lambs that had only been fed mulberries, strawberries, and a type of black chillie that smelled like liquorice. She spent a bit of time showing us other items in the market stalls and explaining techniques that could be used to prepare the items for consumption.

We then went to her restaurant and sat down for a glass of apple tea and a chat about life in Istanbul in general. The restaurant itself was located on one of the upper floors of the Richmond hotel and had a fabulous view of the Bosphorus.

We were then given some free time to wander the area while our dinner was prepared. We walked down the road to see a clock tower we'd been told about and to do some last minute souvenier shopping.

Finally we returned to the restaurant and sat down for our gourmet dinner. The entree consisted of sliced artichoke topped with the sandfire herb and a type of bean I can't remember the name of. Beside this was also a puree made from the same type of bean topped with an orange chutney. The combination of the flavours was delicious, and yes Andrew ate the lot!!!

For main course we had the lamb backstrap which had been marinated in pomegranite juice. This was served with an eggplant, wallnut and mint pesto; and another type of puree whose ingredients currently elude me. This was all quite delicious, though I found the flavours in the pesto a little strong for me.

Last but most certainly not least came dessert. For this course we were served a sour cherry sorbet on a bed of sliced apricots, together with pannacotta covered in caremalised strawberries. It was divine!

After dinner we were driven back to our hotel, checked in and went to bed.

Our final full day in Istanbul arrived. We said farewell to our remaining tour group members at breakfast as they were all flying out that day. Then we headed back to the Grand Bazaar to stock up on some gifts for people back home. Once we had finished shopping we headed back for the hotel to dump our wares via a Doner Kebab place we found on the way for lunch.

After a short rest in the hotel we again headed out for a walk in the Gardens. These were immaculate, but there was a storm threatening to break so we didn't want to spend too long there.

We then headed to Mado, for some Turkish ice cream and sat there watching the world go by (and get drenched in the storm). Andrew had a pretty bad cold so we tried not to do too much.

That evening, after a quick dinner, Andrew and I headed out to get some night shots of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia. After struggling with his tripod, which was not locking in properly, Andrew handed the camera to me and I managed to get several nice shots. Later on, Andrew was so frustrated with the tripod that he took it apart to see if he could see what the problem was, but to no avail. So he put it back together, and of course the darn thing started working didn't it.

Next morning we were up bright and early for our 7am pick up. Our journey through Turkey was finally over and we were headed for the airport to catch our flight to Malta.

It was a little sad that we were leaving, but I believe we'd made the most of our trip, and will have many special memories from our visit.