Hamidiye Hotel Istanbul

Hello to all our family and friends.<br><br>Well yes we are still alive and very sorry for the lack of travel blogs but we have found it a bit hard to get Internet everywhere we have been and one that does not cost a fortune.<br><br>Also out last blog did not update the photos so we will try with this one.<br><br>Here we go &gt; we are now in Venice and on tour with Cosmos and had a full day in Venice starting with a water bus to St Marco square and a walking tour around ...

... sequins, etc. on their veils. I find this hysterical! Way to express your identities, girls! Oh, and someone needs to tell the Japanese tourists that those stupid flu masks are worthless. <br><br>The best way I can describe Old Istanbul at this point is that it reminds me of the Caribbean. Lots of lush, green areas and palmy trees. You can tell why competing sultans would build palaces here. All of the roads - for the cars - are cobblestone. The ...

A few lessons to pass on here:<br><br>1.  Always have backup cash.<br>2.  Never spend the backup cash.<br>3.  If you dont have backup cash, get backup cash.<br>4.  Always know which airport your leaving from (sometimes there are more than one airport).<br>5.  There is no "Welcome to Asia" sign when you cross the bridge to Asia.<br>5.  If you have zero cash, you cant get transportation.<br><br>The last one is a myth that I, the myth buster, busted.  Though ...

... of you he is planning on opening a restaurant in San Francisco in a year! Following our swishy meal, we had cocktails at a bar that had live music and beautiful views of the City. Then it was time to catch the last ferry of the evening back to the City Center where we spent our remaining few hours exploring Istanbul by night before catching our very early taxi to the airport. We relished every moment of our anniversary day as not a moment of it was wasted ...

... I made sure that it was today though, so I have no idea how this happened. This is not good because a group of people in our program were supposed to go out tomorrow night for our ultimate celebration since it is our last night in Istanbul. Well, it turns out that the Turkish kid couldn't even get the tickets. I am really disappointed that I don't get to go to a futbol game, but such is life. I will think of something else to do with the 100ytl.

... to celebrate Erce's nephew's birthday- Kerem. We went to Beyoðlu, one of my favrite areas for dinner at a terrace restaurant. It overlooked the Golden Horn. Erce's whole family was there. Nora, Kelsey (friend of theirs from Cinci) and I took off the next day for a girls day out. We took the new Metro- beautiful and extremely quick- to Taksim. We walked along our old favorite places and took one of the oldest funiculars from 1874. We to the Spice Bazaar ...

... looked very proud of himself. "Did you mean to say 'gorgeous?" I asked. His eyebrows drew down in confusion and he cocked his head as if he hadn't heard me correctly. "Gorgeous?" I repeated slower. He cocked his head to the other side and squinted at me as if the lighting made it difficult for him to see. "Gorilla?" he asked again, phrasing it as a question. "No," I said. "Gorgeous. Very beautiful. Cok cok cok guzel," I explained in Turkish ...

... off. The girls had been pushing for us to take a taxi back home but I had bravely been saying that we had walked this far so we should walk back. Truth be known I was completed buggered so it didn't take a lot of convincing for me to flag down a taxi. It only cost 5 lira and it was money well spent because as soon as we got home the girls flaked. It had been a huge day and with time difference we had a hard time keeping the girls up past 4 in the afternoon. Jess and I made it all the way to 8 o'clock!

... grander is better. When we exit, St. Irene Church is on the right, just outside the Palace's walls. I'm told this church has perfect acoustics. So how far is the walking distance to everything we just saw? From the Egyptian Column to the Blue Mosque. About 1 1/2 minutes. Blue Mosque to the Fountain 3 minutes. Fountain to the Million 2 minutes. Million to the Cistern 1 minute. Cistern to Hagia Sophia 3 minutes. No taxis are needed! Now we're on to the Grand Bazaar. On the way ...

Josh: Today was our last full day in Istanbul. Once we got up we went to an archeology museum. It was kind of fun, but they mostly just said what period the item was from and what it was made out of. Some things changed because they might have been more creative or made out of a different kind of rock, but some just didn't. We didn't like it that much and even mom and dad were ready to leave ...