Certainly this must be the most anticipated visit on the tour as none of us in the band have been here before. With a population reported to be between 12 an 16 million, the city formerly known as Byzantium and then Constantinople is the third largest in the world. Clearly the success of it's economic history is based upon it's geographic location as an international junction of both land and sea routes. It also surely must be the only city to span two continents, Europe and Asia. Our day off here was much relished and apart from luxuriating poolside at the glorious Ciragan Palace hotel, we were treated to an evening boat trip and dinner by the promoter, Alp. This pic says it all I think.



Show day....The venue was conveniently located, about 1.5 km from our hotel on the Bosphorus river. Journey time at 6PM estimated to be one hour! This town has some quite serious traffic issues. We were fortunate in the event and got to the gig in about 20 minutes. A beautiful setting right next to the Bosphorus river overlooking the Mosques on the Asian side of the city. We had a feeling the audience would be up for this show and we weren't wrong. An amazing atmosphere in the packed venue and a great show for our first visit to Turkey. The after-show runner was interesting as instead of turning left to go down the traffic laden hill, Bernie turned right and headed away from the hotel and up into the windin roads in the hills above the gig. It was 20 minutes before we circumnavigated our way back home but the alternative was an hour and a half in traffic. Looking forward now with some sadness to our final European show in Athens.





  

We said our farewells to our caterers Angus and Chris (Steve is staying on to look after the dressing rooms and to oversee the rest of the tour caterers) in Sofia as the next two shows are local catering. The outdoor ovens used at the gig.



Richard awaits the largest gathering for any meet and greet so far on the tour. About 60 guests.



Ben and Glenn