Berk Guesthouse Istanbul

... other travelers led me to believe that south was a good idea. Later that evening I boarded a nine pm bus bound for the ancient, sleepy town of Selcuk (pronounced Sel-chuk). The bus ride was 10 hours long and it headed south along the Aegean coast of Turkey. I fell asleep by some non drug induced miracle but awoke around midnight. After looking around, I noticed that we were floating across a large body of water. Naturally, this was a ...

... and great!! Another awesome and eventful night in Istanbul:) We didn't do a lot of site seeing, but had a great time chilling out and having fun.
DAY 31 - ISTANBUL
Today we woke up and headed down to a local pub for lunch. I had a steak. It was awesome to have a good steak after about two months without one. After this we went to the Grand Bazaar, which is an indoor market of thousands of little retail shops selling almost anything. In the afternoon everyone went to get a ...

... I watch the locals heading out for their daily chores. We would have liked to stay longer here in Cappadocia, but now the plan is almost set in concrete and I can't go back to Dorotea to ask for another change. But, I tell myself, we will come back to this enchanted valley again some day. Cappadocia and especially Goreme, have taught us a lot about history. We learned about the early struggles of the Christians and the extremes to ...

... We still came across the riot police, complete with a tankette (it's an official term, we Canadians use them in the militia) with a water cannon, and other equipment. This didn't make me happy. What did make me happy was the great English language bookstore we came across. I bought a book of Tang poetry (yes, Tang, China), because I'd never seen it before, and I teach about it. Cool eh? With no incidents of protests to avoid, we walked back down to ...

... We went to the Topkapi palace where our guide told us about Sultans and the Ottoman empire. It was really interesting hearing the other side of the story as we have so far only heard about it from the countries occupied by the Ottomans. They also have a massive amount of gems and jewels housed here. Next up was the Blue Mosque which is a really pretty building. We heard about the Islamic religion which is ...

... water, then rinses. With her limited English and my inability to speak any Turkish, I realise she's now wanting me to put on my rubber shoes and walk over to the basin. She sits me down on the warm marble and pours water over my hair, then shampoo. She massages, rinses, and repeats. I am thoroughly enjoying myself now. Then it's over. Naked and clean, she releases me. Now I am on my own. I collect my dripping towel and find a ...

... would have made the person sitting next to me uncomfortable :-P im only kidding. tomorrow is my last day of classes for the week because on friday, the university is holding its commencement exercises. excellent news. i hope to get in some more sightseeing in, like going to the grand bazaar, suleimanye mosque, etc. (this time, i will remember to wear the appropriate attire so i can actually go in to a mosque) i found ...

... the Blue Mosque; the Haghia Sophia and the Spice Market. All these were impressive and we all also found the city attractive and friendly. An excess of carpet salesmen was the only real downside.

... people on. This morning he not only did this but also signalled to desperate people outside the bus to get on at the back and they then passed their money or akbils to him and then to some of us at the front to press it onto the machine and deduct the fare. At one point we were hurtling round a rather sharp corner, clinging on to the bar, when the conductor shoved an akbil at me to press it on the machine. It was quite ...

... to boss people around and demand passports, tickets, money and other things. He was clearly quite used to dealing with the confusion and seemed to take pride in shouting orders, half-Greek, half-English, at whoever showed him any documents. He spoke so harshly to one confused American girl that she burst into tears and had to retreat to the safety of the police station.

Surprisingly, for we had felt just as confused as everyone else, a neat looking man in white clothing ...