Grand Anka Istanbul

... exactly! And now the second: despite the fact there is a huge number of people in Istanbul, geographically it is very compact. There are no contradictions here. I'm talking about Istanbul for tourists. These are the areas of Sultanahmet, Taksim, Laleli and the Asian part - there's no haste ...<br><br>So the first three districts can be well studied for a month on foot. Especially Sultanahmet. I lived there by the way. I rented a room in a small hotel ...

... of. and everything is friggin expensive. we are going to go broke!!! we got home around 5am and needless to say did not get out of the house until 4pm today after waking up at 2:30. ah, vacation. tracy and dave are now here and we will meet them in a couple days, because they're out in cappadoccia right now. yay! can't wait. everything has a cool rooftop terrace here and a lot of sidewalk dining. it's so cool. i love, love this city and could stay here the whole month. ahh.<br><br>

... Kayseri region. I sure hope so, just as I hope it actually arrives in the mail like it's supposed to...jeez louise.<br><br>It was fun to be in there talking with this guy trying to do shady deals, etc. etc.<br><br>"$3900 too much? I give you smaller one, show him smaller one," he said, and then brought back out the calculator, "This one only $1800."<br><br>"Come on, it's just not going to happen, that last rug was the biggest single purchase of my life and I'm not going to do it ...

... to work on tuesday and its a national holiday - everyone usually gets the day off but since the store isnt closed i have to go in. :-/    last night i hung out with my friend alice and we went to her friend mario's bar... well, it hasnt opened yet but its almost ready... it was so neat inside - its called barrio latino (he is Argentinean and Mexican) and he did all of the interior decor including construction... very colorful ...

... There is no monolithic Soviet constructivism to mar the sensual elegance and curves of each building, nor to soar and sour the skyline. Accusations have been leveled against tight-pocketed Moscow - in a subconscious, or not, spur against the aristocracy of old - for allowing a certain amount of decay to set in, but ironically it would be this very meanness that allowed St Petersburg to maintain her beauty and form. How does one fall in love with a city? I don't know. It just happens ...

... our other room (trying to not be impolite to his Turkish hospitality and hardly being able to contain our constant laughter at the strange situation in which we found ourselves. ) He said that someone would come for us soon and take us to the other hotel. After about two hours of being held hostage with this strange little man, he asked us how long we had been awake. When we told him we'd been up since 4am, he said, oh, well then let's go ...

... the courtyard door. People came and left, to pray or to visit. Some others just sat, like us. Once the sun had set behind the nearby buildings... ...we walked onto the Galata Bridge where we could watch the sun set again behind a different mosque. On the other end of the bridge, we came upon movie lights, a camera on a boom and a crowd of people pretending to be celebrating after a Turkish soccer vistory. This little movie is fun...

... mind after being locked up in the palace for four years. And it was home to Roxalena, the beautiful and wicked girlfriend to Suleyman the Magnificent. When we left there, we went to the Egyptian Spice Market. I was surprised to know that it was more than just food that they sold. It was all kinds of stuff. Just like the Grand Bazaar, but it had more food shops than supplies and stuff like that. My Mom bought stuff that goes into tea ...

... too. We sampled the special fragrant bread, a variety of kebabs (including donner), aubergine cooked in a hundred different ways, sweet, cinnamon drink, rose-water flavoured desert (gullac), chocolate baklava, pistachio halva, local figs and dates. We didn't drink any wine but took Turkish tea instead. After dinner we adjourned to the bar which overlooked the Inonu stadium and from where we could see the second half of the evening's football game with ...