Bahaus Guesthouse Istanbul

Greetings from... rainy and dreary Istanbul? Well it's 4:30pm and I'm here poking at a Turkish keyboard instead of being out and about. It is POURING rain and about 11 degrees. Oh well, there will be plenty of time for sightseeing later. Got in yesterday evening after a ridiculously long day. Of course my trip was supposed to have started on the 19th, but an unfortunate bout of food poisoning resulted me sitting in a hospital bed on a saline drip instead of on an airplane! Somehow, possibly b...

Sedaj sem v Istanbulu. Prezivel sem obisk bazarja ( habibi ti ves kako jih ljubim ane ;)), celo veckrat in Turki so bolj normalni kot arabci. Pivo je odlicno, kebabi tudi.... Prvi vecer sva sla malo pogledat po mestu in ker je najin hostel v neposredni blizini Sofije in Modre moseje sva sla v zadnjo. Seveda se je takoj na naju prilimal model, ki se ima za lokalnega vodica in ker se nisem bil dovolj aklimatiziran smo se zmenili za turo. Tip je bil kar uspesen pri poucevanju, tako da sem nasel ...

We're here...Jamie and I are having a relaxing wine and water pipe evening (our hostel is featuring this as a free amenity tonight...). I'll post more photos in a couple of days, but until then here is an image of the Blue Mosque--a major landmark in Turkey just a few blocks from our hostel...combined with the crowd-stopping call to prayer in the evening, it's an incredible experience...

apparantly all my turkish "i"s come up as these wierd "y"s, sorry. Our plane was delayed, I thınk we finally got ın around 3am. Customs isn't so much a lıne as much as ıt ıs a huge herd of people cuttıng you off to get up to the wındow. Fınally get to the front only to be cut off by an old grandma, those damn Turkısh grandmas. My fırst shower experıence kınd of sucked. Fırst my towel slıps off the hook and falls onto the nasty soakıng wet ground..... sweet. Turn on the shower, medıum pressur...

I caught the train from Thessaloniki to Istanbul at 7:30pm. Quickly met a really nice couple named Billy and Becca from England. Met another guy who offered to give me a ride to Cappadocia Turkey (but his wife ended up vetoing it the next morning). Before I had gotten on the traın in Thessoloniki I had gone to the food market to get snacks; on the train I ate Kalamata olives, fresh tsatiki, dolma, fresh feta and tradional greek bread. I shared with Billy because his greek culınary e...

We'd had enough after 2 days in Goreme and decided to overnight bus it back to Istanbul. The trip wasn't too bad, but the annoying thing was that we paid an extra 5 lira so we could get a bus from the station in Istanbul to Sultanahmet where our hostel is. Upon arriving in Istanbul we were told the bus was only going to drop us halfway at a tram stop. It was much foggier than when we were here earlier in the week but it seemed much warmer too which was a very welcome change from Goreme. When ...

Got off at Sirkici Station and walked up the winding, hilly roads to nearby Sultanahmet.Loads of people on the narrow pathways, shopping in rows and rows of tourist shops.....selling CD's, clothing, tourist souvenirs,musical instruments, ornaments, jewellery, shoes....just about anything you could think of. Unlike Bucharest, Istanbul is so geared up for tourism that it smacks you in the face by comparison. Trams flying past, inches from your nose....the mood in the streets was really abuzz, w...

We arrıved at Istanbul central traın statıon around 11am....havıng taken a 22 hour traın rıde from Athens. The traın was an adventure....several passport checks ın the nıght, 30 euros for vısas and 'ınterestıng' toılets. Istanbul ıs very humıd compared to Athens and strangly unqıue. The Turks are passıonate people, hıghly hospıtable, and truely love theır cıty; the capıtal ıs beautıful, full of colour, relıgıon and food! We've stayed 2 nıghts - yesterday we vısıted one of the Prınce Islands '...

We packed in a rush to get off the boat, which was a good thing because we almost missed the start ... of four extra hours sitting on our poop decks waiting for customs to show up for work. We took some of the time to stand in line for a Turkish visa for Ukrainian citizens, though they did not find it auspicious to give us one. Finally we were landlubbers again, stopping only to help (i.e. be pack mules for) the girls carry their 10,000 pound suitcases down the stairs. Normally I like doing t...

Istanbul Well we arrived safe and sound in Istanbul and it was love at first sight. There is a great vibe in Itanbul that you just cant help but notice, as well as it being a beautiful and interesting city. We stayed in the Sultanahmet area, just around the corner from the Blue Mosque and Aya Sophia (looks like a big red mosque). We were still a bit keyed up for Egypt I think and were a little taken back by the friendly people here, always willing to help you out. We felt a bit bad and have b...