Istanbul - Day 2

Woke up at 4 am shivering with cold. By the time I got up at 7 am I had a headache. Today's mission: Georgian Consulate, Air İran office - both on the other side of town (north of Taksim). Two head turning things on the way: - A billboard saying 'Istanbul: a city of love and dreams' right next to a gun shop with a huge relief of a revolver, shells falling from it. - A car plastered into the wall of a building for no apparent reason Turned out that the Georgian consulate had moved, but there was a sign on the door about the new address. The new place in a state of total disarray - workmen going in and out. The consul greeted me with cigarette in hand. Visa procedure: fill out this form, give me 19AUD and come back in 3 hours. My luck ran out by the time I found Air İran: Sorry, we can't sell you a ticket unless you fly from Istanbul to Teheran then Taschkent. I decided to explore the neighbourhood: millions of narrow residential streets, with 5 storey dilapidated houses. Found an Old Evangelical Cemetery in the midst of all this. A woman let me in, but I couldn't walk around, as she was wearing thongs, it was raining and 3 huge shepherd dogs were guarding the premises. Having picked up my (pink!) Georgian Visa, I thought I'd hang out at a few airline offices. Turned out that Uzbekistan Airways ran the show where Taschkent connections were concerned. The office was staffed by two grumpy men and a security guard. However, they were very helpful in the end. The last part of the day was the most pleasant, as I went to Taksim and took a stroll down the crowded modern main shopping street. Getting bored of the vibe, I got lost in some side streets - night clubs and quaint cafes everywhere, a dilapidated house here and there. Eventually I ended up in a derelict residential district on the shores of the Bosfor. Winding my way back to the centre I stumbled across two Japanese girls on an incredibly steep side street. Japanese people are easy to start chatting to... all you need is 'Isshou ni torimashouka?' Maki-san and Makiko-san were cool and incredibly cute, but unfortunately our paths had to part as I was going the other way. Next I stumbled 'musical instrument street'... dozens of shops selling weird things with strings. Japanese girls, weird string instruments - it would have been heaven if not for my headache and killer cold.