Beside the Bosphorus Strait...

...we found ourselves this afternoon, having lunch and a glass of Turkish tea, watching the endless cruise boats and occasional cargo ships. This is the natural waterway in Istanbul that links the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara and, eventually, the Aegean Sea. Under a UN-brokered agreement last July, ships are allowed to transport Ukrainian grain from ports like Odesa and Mykolaiv, guided through the heavily mined Black Sea to the Bosphorus Strait.

But it only works when Russian inspection teams allow the ships to leave and they frequently delay these inspections. In fact, we saw lots of boats going down the strait to the Black Sea but none coming in the other direction. And Moscow has only agreed to extend the deal until 18 May.

We feel very lucky to have been given this opportunity to come to Istanbul to pick up a vehicle to drive back to Ukraine. It has had its challenges - arriving just before dark in the vastness of Istanbul, with its incredibly narrow streets, some almost vertical, and crazy driving that more than rivals Lviv. It took some time to locate the vehicle and then Bob had to try to drive it to our hotel, without any internet connection on our phones so no Google maps - eventually, we flagged down a taxi to guide us!

But this is nothing compared to the hardships suffered by people back in Ukraine. We had a stark reminder of the war when the siren on Bob"s air raid alert App suddenly went off this evening, as we were sitting in our apartment. We didn't know the App would work here and we were immediately back in Ukraine, wondering if/hoping it's a false alarm - a plane taking off in Belarus - or whether someone, somewhere is being bombed.

Finally, back to Istanbul which has a huge population of stray cats, estimated to range from a hundred thousand to over a million. They seem to be viewed as communally-owned pets and the country has a blanket "no-kill, no capture policy." It may be to do with cats being honoured as ritually clean animals in Islam. Everywhere in the city, outside shops and homes, there are dishes of cat food, and there seemed to be as many cats as humans in the park!