Hotel Marin Princess Kumburgaz

... which was truly impressive in its size and layout and density of shops but not so impressive in its wares.   Then we saw Hagia Sofia.   Aya Sofia.  St. Sophia.   I must drop my literary tone and device here because this mosque/church/museum was truly extraordinary.  It helps that I was prepared to love it. I've been reading about this church/mosque for at least 14 years and I've seen pictures of ...

... a massage, but the spa was all booked. Bummer, because this spa has a real hammam that can be booked for treatments. A hammam is a Turkish bath house. In this case, you book the hammam as you would a treatment room for your massage. So the massage is given inside of a steamroom on a round marble slab. Since I didn't get to use it, I now have a justifiable reason to come back. I really wasn't in the mood for ...

... world. the past definitely meets the present in this city and i think that the residents wouldnt have it any other way. before i start telling you what has happened recently, i want to apologize. i havent been as diligent at updating as i was in the beginning and i feel kind of hypocritical for that - i said early on that i was going to be updating everyday eventhough my street cred would suffer many a blow from it, but alas i have not kept up my end of the bargain i ...

... out... it was kind of a boring day. yesterday I went to class and then hung out at the dorm the rest of the day.. nothing exciting.... felt pretty sick all day actually. :( today I have class again and then hw/reading to doooo... I'm giving a little presentation today in my Iranian comparative politics class so that should be interesting... hahah anyways I gotta get to class thanks for reading!

... because I thought he was telling me to wait. Finally he said "Bye, Bye" so that I would understand! Fortunately for me, there was some food being delivered at an adjacent door so when the young lady came out to pick up the food, at least I could talk to an embodied human being. She explained that I needed to fill out a form and fax it from my hotel - even though I was standing there - and I didn't think I looked like a terrorist!. (The Iranian ...

While I haven't been to a lot of the world's great cities, there is something about this place that makes it special. There's a feeling that we're welcome, we're asked "where are from?" and our reply is always met with"welcome to my country". It's Ramadan and the devout Muslims fast all during the daylight hours, but when the sun goes down annd the guys in the ...

I'm settling in and adjusting to the time change. Yesterday was a pretty low-key day for me as I was fighting jet-lag. I got up at around 8:30 and joined my cousins for my favorite Turkish breakfast of Simit (sesame covered rolls shaped like really big, skinny bagels), home-made sour cherry jam, feta and other cheese, olives, and coffee - although tea is more traditional. Then they were off to the airport to head south to a resort for a few ...

It was a long night on the bus but on our arrival to Sultan Ahmet at 8am stalwarts like us dropped our bags and got on it!! We quickly and deftly procured two train tickets to Bucharest and went on a serious shopping mission to the grandest of the grand bazzares: The Grand Bazzare. And grand is the word. Right in the heart of old super atmospheric Istanbul spitting distance from the Blue Mosque, Aya Sophia and bordered by the ...

I have always dreamt of visiting Istanbul - Constantinople, the seat of the Ottoman Empire. Certain places and names just have a mystery and a magic to them - Samarkand, Basra, Egypt - and one is a bit apprehensive about visiting them today, in a modern era, for fear of being disappointed.

... and the journey is always so smooth and fast ( I Love the German train system) so i was able to get a little sleep. We arrived at the airport at 11ish and our flight was not due to leave till 22.30pm one thing about Lufthansa that was good is they had 24hr check in so we could give them our luggage and make our way into the terminal thank god and this is where i got some sleep i laid across three ...