Holiday Inn Istanbul

... Istanbul was initially built by Pharoah Thutmoses III. However, later on in the fourth century AD, it was re-built by the Theodosius (the Roman emperor) and given a name as the Hippodrome of Constantinople. The antique Obelisk is made of red granite. Although, originally it was nearly 30m tall, however, due to damages suffered in transportation and re-erection, it is just 25.6m today. This oldest monument of Istanbul was built for the deity Amon by ...

... of &#305;t and &#305;t began a type of soul search that began r&#305;ght there &#305;n that t&#305;ny stall ( more on that later) <br>The rest of the n&#305;ght went wonderfully. Al&#305; and us became near best fr&#305;ends and we w&#305;ll be headed back ton&#305;ght. When I use the restroom then, I w&#305;ll hold my head h&#305;gh, squat low, and walk out w&#305;th my shoulders . . . . . covered. <br>Unt&#305;l then - love you all <br>She&#305;la a.k.a Shelby Rhodes<br><br>

... our first exhibition last week and an English newspaper covered it, so I wanted to share. <br><br>Having almost become a "flatliner", take my word for it: Our life, every breath, every sunset is a gift granted to us. Take care of yourself and your world. <br>Here's the story. <br>http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/d etaylar.do?load=detay&amp;link=179184<b r><br>Gizem

... From my table I can clearly see the Asian portion of Istanbul on the other side of the Bosporus. In the distance an orange hot air balloon is lifting off from the wharf and there are many boats passing by. The little fishing boats seem like a personal watercraft. The mostly have one cylinder engines and they look tiny compared to the big freighters that go streaming by. Well, enough for today, tomorrow we explore the grand bazaar.

... ride and then found a taxi to take us to Bebek where we would call Lynn from the Starbucks once we got there.  The people at Starbucks were so nice and let us use the phone as our story was just to believable!  Lynn came about 15 minutes after the call and then the return trip was made via taxi again.  Dang, we are getting good at bargaining for rides and riding on the tram!  We met back at Starbucks, laughed and drank some coffee. Dinner was dessert at the Four ...

... sad because some of them were broken and stolen during wars. There was also a train that we rode around the park - the conductor was nice and asked me how old I was. We played at the playground then we left. This afternoon, after we went swimming in the very warm pool (the sun came out!), Dad came home and we went to Taksim Square. We walked down Itsiklal (Independence) Avenue which is a street with no cars, only a cable car. We saw people playing backgammon and smoking nargile ...

... others provide cold drinks or some kind of lemonade, but tastes more like "lemsip" to me. They are all so friendly and make sureto get enough chairs out for you. There was a little market happening across the road where we stopped and we decided to go and have a sneaky peak. So with the bikes we wondered throuh the local market and by this stage we had around 8 kids following us closely. We bought some candies for them and in return we received the yummiest ...

... and we were pretty tired. Wednesday 28th May Istanbul Down to Hotel Spina about 9.30am for our 10am meet-up with our tour. We're happy to see another person waiting for the tour, as the hotel still knows nothing about us, and they say we're not booked in. Six of us eventually turn up, but no sign of any guides or other passengers, though nearly an hour after our meet-up time. Spend the hour comparing notes on ...

... choclate chip muffin. It tasted really good. It was time for boarding. It was Air France, but to bad, it had no TV screens. The plane ride was borrrrrring!! It was not bumpy. I was glad when we were off the plane. In Istanbul at last!!!! We had to get visas, then headed out to our taxi and off to the Hotel Antik. The room was nice. After we unpacked we looked for dinner spots. It ...

... is no number on the back you can't see which one it was as it lurches off into the distance. I have recently discovered a tiny list of bus numbers at each bus stop secreted away where you would least expect to find it and with the list of numbers is a list of terminating stops, but not the stops in between. Reaching a specific destination and within a specific timeframe is something that cannot always be achieved with bus travel. Until you have perfected the art, you find ...