Barely did I touch down at Munich airport than I started on another escapade, this time across town to the Zenith concert venue north of the centre, where I was due to meet up with Michaela and see Muse live. They were FABULOUS!!!!!!!!! Well worth the hassle of hurriedly getting changed in the airport toilets and leaving my luggage at Hauptbahnhof.

I finally had a quiet day on Sunday, but it was the calm before the storm because the following week was Christmas party week: on Tuesday it was our works do (in a tapas bar); on Wednesday night a bunch of us went out for cocktails near work to drink to Tine's leaving our team & starting in a new job in the other EPO building; and on Thursday I accompanied Lorna and Phil to the E.ON Christmas party at the Olympiapark in a huge arena decked out like a funfair, complete with candy floss stands.

The weekend was just as hectic, with a Glühwein party at my friend Jürgen's flat on Saturday and then a day trip to Augsburg with my mate Harry to visit my friends Matthias & Stefan (well, it was about time I went to visit THEM, instead of them always coming to Munich). The day (okay, it was more of an afternoon/evening affair by the time I had roused myself out of bed) was wonderful despite the dodgy weather.

The Christmas market in Augsburg is possibly even more scenic than the main Munich one on Marienplatz, in part because it is the only one, whereas each square in Munich has its own set of stands. And undoubtedly the highlight of Christmas in Augsburg is the angels singing carols out of th 24 windows of the Town Hall. I've never experienced anything so kitsch! Gold lamé wings, blonde wigs, cardboard bugles, a fake organ, and Rondo Veneziano-style electic classical music all combined to create an otherworldly 20 minutes of such tack that I was transfixed.

Thankfully, copious amounts of Glühwein punch restored my sanity. And the muscle pain of our 10-minute jog back to the railway station went some way towards blocking out the psychological pain of those Wrong Angels...

The week of 18th December was just as hectic, with lunch and dinner with various friends I hadn't already seen the previous week. Not to mention my nephew Charlie's school nativity play; I haven't been to a school play since I was IN a school play!

And then, before I knew it, it was almost Christmas. I decamped to my sister's house pretty much for the duration of the week "between the years", as they say here. Every time I thought about going home to my own bed, I got another glass of mint Bailey's thrust into my hand, and suddenly turfing one of my nephews out of his room & kipping in his bed seemed the better option again...

In brief, Christmas was wonderful. We awoke to a light dusting of snow - the first snow since the beginning of November! - and that Christmas Feeling kicked in at last. Instead of spending all morning cooking, we all (me, Michaela, Tim, the boys, and Tim's daughter Danielle who was over from the UK for the holidays) headed over to the Kastanienhof restaurant up the road for lunch. My sister said it was the first time she'd actually seen her children open their presents! Normally she would have been in and out of the kitchen.

On Boxing Day Chris arrived with Kate & my nieces. It was so lovely to see them all again (for the first time since I was in Guildford in August)! We had a great time. And this Christmas the four kids pretty much got on with their own thing the whole time, which meant that we adults could concentrate on things like eating & drinking & chatting. Fab.

The next morning I woke up and made my way to the top floor breakfast room (with a sexy view of the Blue Mosque, by the way) only to find Hugh sitting there sipping coffee and reading a newspaper!! I hadn't seen him since I was in London in August. It was great to see him again. It felt just like old times, at Uni and thereafter, talking about all manner of things and generally being amused by his conversation. In fact, I lived the next three days pretty much in this vein.

As an adjunct to our chit-chat, we did stacks of sightseeing around Istanbul. The photos will tell their own story, but I will just list the highlights here and perhaps put a word or two of description by each of them:

Sultanahmet ("Blue") mosque: fab! huge and spectacular

Ibrahim Paşa mosque: hidden away, with wonderful tilework

Kücük Ayia Sofya mosque: a 5th-century bijou church re-faithed

Constantinople city walls (fragment): mix of Greek pillars and brick dust

Basilica Cistern: Emperor Justinian's underground water storage - wow!

Suleymaniye mosque: another architectural gem by Sınan, with domes

Spice market: an assault on the senses - vibrant colours, oceans of odour

Gedik Paşa hammam: sauna 15th-century stylee with an abandoned feel

Baklava shop: there are 1000s, and they all sell little rolls of heaven

Tram across the Golden Horn: ah! such resonant placenames!

Beyoğlu: SO MANY people out walking and having a lovely evening

Hagia Sophia church: the biggest, oldest, fabbest church I've ever seen

Topkapı Palace: heaving with tourists, but great views of Asia

Old Mint: tumble-down sanctuary, or prime redevelopment opportunity?

Kadiköy (Asia): German railway station amidst commercial sprawl

Karaköy (Europe): Atmospheric inner-city mélange of old and new

Çembolitaş hammam: much busier (how many hairy Spanish men?!)

Taksim Square: Istanbul's answer to Piccadilly Circus, only much bigger

Archaeological Museum: higgledy-piggledy mounds of history - great!

Just walking around Istanbul, chatting with Hugh and absorbing the little details, like people carrying huge boxes on crazy platforms strapped to their backs or a tray of tulip-shaped tea glasses balancing on the boot of a car, was a marvellous experience. And I didn't even get hassled to buy that many carpets or anything.

It's been a while since I was there now (damn me and my slow updating of this blog!) but I think I've caught the highlights here. Oh, except to say that the we timed our ferry back from Asia to perfection: the sun set over the Old Town, and as the silhouettes of a thousand minarets stood atop this most striking of cities I felt that I had truly "done" one of the world's must-see metropolises. Travelling rocks!