Metropolis Hostel Istanbul

So after a little over a week a part, it was time to reunite in Istanbul. Each of us had our own way of reaching Turkey. Jon chose to take a boat to Bodrum and bus from there straight to Istanbul. Evren and Russell came overland via Sofia, Bulgaria. We all made it in one piece and gladly reunited at what would prove to be one of our best hostels yet, the Metropolis Hostel in Sultanehmet district of Istanbul so named after the Blue Mosque which goes by Sultanehmet in Turkey. But before we coul...

So, after being disappointed to hear we would be flying all the way back across Turkey and missing out on Kazakhstan (sure glad we got those Visas!), we got to spend one more day in Istanbul before flying out that night to Bishkek. This was really a blessing in disguise as we got to see our friend Caesar at the Metro Hostel again, take some more pictures and eat baklava and sutlac one more time. It actually turned out to be pretty nice. Now onto Central Asia.

My day Getting to the airport in Milan was a real pain. What should have been a 10-minute wait for the bus turned out to be 55 minutes, presumably because of the snow, yet I counted 11 buses going the same route in the other direction! The flight to Istanbul was pretty good, even with a no-name airline like MyAir. The hostel here is pretty decent. There's a room upstairs with great views of the Bosphorus, a TV, and best of all it has free Internet! I spent a few hours tonight updating my blo...

Bosphorus cruise After some ineffective bargaining, I paid 20 Lira (pretty much $20) to take a 2-hour cruise of the Bosphorus, Istanbul's main waterway surrounded on one side by Europe, and the other by Asia. Istanbul's the only city in the world that's on 2 continents! The cruise was beautiful, it was pretty sunny though strong winds kept me inside for half of it. It's right up there with Sydney Harbour for beauty. Along the shore you can see lots of mansions, for a city of 16 million peopl...

In the 15th country, Dane rested I start a tour this Saturday night, and on Sunday we go to Istanbul's main sites - Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Hippodrome, and Basilica Cistern. Thus until then I've had to restrain myself from visiting the important places, and have rested for much of the time. For instance, this afternoon, I took ALL my clothes to the laundry, except my pyjamas, otherwise I'd have nothing to wear. I didn't realise the laundry would take 3 1/2 hours, so for th...