Allstar Color Hotel Istanbul

... allows two bags so I should be OK.<br><br>Just so you know, I will not be sending daily messages from Paris. I will end these travel notes when I get to Paris. Oh, don't moan and cry. I think some of you must be tired of all this but those who have been sending comments, I thank you. It has forced me to sit down at the end of the day to put fingers to laptop so I can remember what I saw, what I ate, and how I felt about this great trip.<br><br>Love to all,<br><br>Maxine <br><br>

Tuesday we made our way to Istanbul. Even driving through Turkey was fascinating. We passed a field with farmers in just as it reached prayer time and they all fell to their knees in the middle of the field and began praying. The weather is hot in the sun, but quite chilly in the shade. Driving into Istanbul was incredible. I was totally overwhelmed by how different it was, and I was completely happy for the first time on the trip. It made me realise how much ...

... people there were tourists but it was still fun to wander and smell all the good spice mixes that were there.  I had a great time wandering, tasting, and figuring out what to buy.  Suprised???? I found cinnamon sticks, little cranberry like things that are used in Persian cooking, dried veggies for soup, teas that are amazing, apricots, and blonde prunes.  I had to be careful as it all needed to ...

We had an great day of exploring the non touristy part of Istanbul. After another calm breakfast on the terrace, we made our way lazily towards the Marmara Sea. There is no beach here, but the breeze was nice and cool, and there were some benches that we found a little bit of shade to sit and read in. It wouldn't be what you would call optimal beachfront as the backs of the benches were right up against the busy road behind us ...

... sat in traffic getting us back to our hotels. This took a couple of hours as we sat and sat and sat. I was hoping to go to one of the Turkish baths but by the time the bus finally dropped me off and I walked to the bath they were closing. I was too exhausted to trek to the next nearest one so I just walked back to the hostel. 5/24 My bus for the tour of Turkey left from the Fez Travel office which was right next door to my hostel. I met our tour guide, Greg, who is ...

... fairness, it was probably the only place open at the time. It was a little shack thing across from the Blue Mosque. I was tasked with negotiating, which was made difficult by my mom constantly changing what she actually wanted. It was ugly, and we ended up buying a lot of what I thought was mediocre stuff for a fair bit of money. When Alie and I went to another ceramics store, we realized exactly how ****** they were...oh well, at least they looked nice ...

... worse for traffic than usual - and then there'd be the possible nightmare of thousands of people trying to fly home causing huge delays in security queues at the airport. SO we decided to leave Virginia Beach by 7 am in order to make sure we made or 4.20pm flight. So of course it was an easy 3 hour run to the airport, which meant we arrived about 1½ hours before the Lufthansa desk even opened, so sat around drinking coffee, then a breeze through security and more hours ...