Allstar Arcadia Hotel Istanbul

... only speaks Turkish) then motioned for us to take pictures of him while he worked, and let us stand as close as we could bear to the 2,200 degree Fahrenheit fire while he melted down the gold. It was amazing watching him use his bare hands to hold different tools to move the gold around in the extremely hot bowl. He then transferred the liquid gold into a molding and we watched as it settled and formed into a solid gold bar. After he rinsed it off in cold water, he let us take turns ...

... mum would lıke to regıster her dıspleasure that Sıngapore aırlınes 777s don't have vıdeo on demand and she's become used to the nıce thıngs - anyway, we survıved the flıght and Mum ıs now sleepıng the sleep of the just, and I am chattıng to you ın a small cafe near our hotel - near but separated by some of the wıldest, most ******* traffıc I have ever ...

... 305;ted ın lıne for forty fıve mınutes only to be told I was stıll mıssıng a securıty check. Another lıne, another scan, and then my bag was unpacked and repacked completely by hand - ıncludıng laundry. Two swıpes for explosıves, another round of questıonıng, and I was allowed through to the fırst of two passport checks and then a specıal securıty l ...

... use.)   Nearby, we found ourselves a beautiful deli selling local mezze, which we stocked up on for a makeshift picnic dinner that night.   And that brings us to today! Our last day in Istanbul, so we'll be checking out the Blue Mosque, before we head down to Bodrum on the south coast tomorrow. We managed to find ourselves a nice hotel for the same price as the local hostel. So a little bit of luxury is coming our way. Thank god for lastminute.com!   Reece x  

... each other. Also, Jeff didn't want to use his Blackberry to call and confirm hotels, etc., so now we can use this phone for that purpose. Hopefully I can sell it to another Turkey Traveler in the future and get back a little bit of my money. Next we adventured in to our first mosque. We went to the Beyazit Mosque. It was built in 1501. It is the oldest surviving Ottoman mosque in Istanbnul. We ...

... and sleepers and odd folk that began weeks ago in Beijing. The end of the halfway stage of the bigger journey - from Asia to South Africa. And a monumental decision to take a break from travelling and spend a few months topping up the bank tank with a contract job that has been offered in Indonesia. Down the track, from St Petersburg, to Sochi, in the southwest corner of Russia, a quick dash into Turkey, and then the brakes come on, the beard comes off, and I fly to Jakarta to play ...

... rivals that of us Canadians or the Brits. I was chatting with a couple of fast talkers outside of an art shop next to the McDonald's that one of the fellows runs in Istanbul. They were pretty funny guys who were trying to convince me to buy a tour package (They have a friend of a friend or a cousin or a brother or something like that who's in the business, that's usually the story.). As we are talking, one of them continues to ...

... right into the Hippodrome. It used to be a horse racing track back in the day (3rd century) and not it contacts three rather unusually partnered monuments...the Serpent Column, the Obelisk of Thutmose III which was erected in Egypt in 1490 BC and then stolen and moved to Istanbul in 390...and finally the Walled Obelisk which was built in the 10th century and looks like **** compared to the even older ...

... seen as rejects here. After this we dodged through the coach parties and tour groups to the Topkapi Palace. Initially we were quite disappointed in it. It was very understated and bereft of most of it's original contents so was fairly characterless. However as we toured the Harem and then the rest of the palace it started to grow on us and like much Islamic design made good use of the natural light, particularly in the more open areas. It contains many ancient ...

... mixing with locals, traders and traffic. Very hot, slightly hazardous and, at times, frustrating. IO can see why many people never leave Sultanamet when they are here as it is slightly quieter; and during Ramadan at least, seems to be full of local families relaxing. On a couple of evenings it was nice to buy food from one of the many street stalls surrounding the Hippodrome, and sit with the picnicing locals to eat, drink and people-watch ...