Armagrandi Spina Hotel Istanbul

We were collected at the airport by a representative of our new school, and soon we found ourselves zipping (or at least it seemed fast to us -- 50mph!) along the expansive highways and overpasses that led towards the interior of the city. Our first impressions were mainly that Istanbul was hugely hilly and that it would be difficult to drive a manual here -- rather reminiscent of San Francisco, actually. We got off the ...

... ourselves some shisha. We got ourselveslost for several hours in the bazzaar. Not sure how it happened but we were fighting our way through in one direction for over an hour without coming to an end... Crazy place! We stopped along the way a couple of times to stock up on Turkish Coffee and Apple tea though ^_^

Then we walked back up o the mosque and it was as if the entire Muslim population ...

... to discuss what i had done during my internship, any ideas on how to make it better, etc. at about 5:30 someone called me over and took me in to one of the meeting rooms and they had set up a little party for me!! it was so incredibly sweet. they bought a profiterol cake (profiterol is basically the turkish version of an eclaire) and had a little gift for me. i was not expecting that at all. they gave me a marks and spencer ...

... didn't reveal very much about the city or the country, the numerous stray dogs rummaging through piles of rubbish is my overriding memory. I bored quickly of the dogs and returned to the station to watch the Romanians instead. Even though it was still early in the morning the majority of people in the station were drinking from bottles of beer, well the male contingent anyway. As I was looking around, watching people, I was noticing that nearly all the children were stick thin ...

... But it soon became apparent that he was trying to pick up this 19 year old girl. At one point Michael and I were in hysterics; we were eating lunch and Lionel Ritchie came on the radio singing "Hello...is it me you're looking for?" Orhan asked her if she knew it and she did not, so he began to describe the video in earnest detail and sing along with the lyrics, and he told her it was "SO deep you can't imagine" This became a favourite saying of ours, and we are now repeating it ...

... old institutions are still here, including 3-4 synagogues, a school, the offices of the Chief Rabbi, etc. etc. I believe we heard that there are about 20 thousand Jews in Turkey, with 19 thousand in Istanbul. While the Ashekinazi Synagogue was empty, Neve Shalom is the largest congregation in Turkey and one of the main centers of Jewish life. In general, we understand that the Jewish community here has lived quite ...

While on my way to a ski trip in Bulgaria I had a 12 hour layover in Istanbul. I bought a $20 tourist visa and headed out to see what I could. Tourist beware... English is not very well spoken in Istanbul. A phrase book would have been very handy as not many spoke English. All I can say is taxi rides are frustrating! I had the ...

... Cats everywhere! Skinny (but not starving - we think it's the breed of cat) and quite small, but thousands of them, and all reasonably friendly - especially if you are sitting down eating! And dogs - but not as many as the cats. Restaurants feed them scraps and I think private homes as well - was explained to us that people like cats and dogs, but don't want hem in their homes, but no-one takes responsibility for them, so none are neutered - so ...