Ibis Istanbul Marmara

... na zmrzku, a tak jsme vkro&#269;ili do McDonaldu. Na&#353;e peníze se bohu&#382;el stále nacházely v kelímcích, a tak jsme si vyndali Ayranové kasi&#269;ky a za&#269;ali se v nich p&#345;ehrabovat, Dolda i s men&#353;ím divadýlkem "mám na to?". Nevím jestli kv&#367;li na&#353;emu extrémn&#283; asociálnímu chování a nebo skute&#269;né poru&#353;e n&#283;&#269;eho (jak tvrdili) jsme byli z Mc Donalds vyhozeni, a tak jsme se vydali na hotel a usli.<br>

... are ´´vitamin shops´´ everywhere, and all they do is sell fresh fruit and juice. We´ll have to get Orange tomorrow with breakfast. Now we´re off to find some more döner (or maybe just yogurt) and later we´ll find a cafe for Turkish Coffee and Hooka.<br><br>So far Istanbul has been wonderful! The only problem (other than lack of maps and everyone honking for no reason) is figuring out how they do laundry! We walked all around our neighborhood ...

... the van and we were getting our clothes washed by the hotel which was great as the washing had piled up.<br><br>Monday 18th May. Istanbul. The hotel supplied breakfast which was a typical Turkish style with olives, soft cheeses, ham (?),dried dates dates and apricots, boiled eggs along with breads and pastries plus western cereals. So we were well pleased with that brekky for sure. This was a welcome break from camping for sure. After our fill we set off for the palace and joined the ...

... youth are notorious for getting into trouble. We have high tea at the Ritz and then go up to Taksim to meet Izy and my dad. They are not there so we decide to go up to this restaurant we had seen earlier we thought it was fancy but it was NOT it was really gross, but a great place to do some people watching. We meet up with Isaac and dad and go to the cool restaurant in the ally again. Afterward we go and see the kittens by the hotel. Blog tomorrow bye! Esther

... were all branded "Efes". I saw one poster featuring a hot air balloon rising between two mountains and was relieved to see some variation until I noticed the hot air balloon was blue and white and had Efes written across it. The owner, wearing an Efes t-shirt got up from the boardgame he was playing with a friend, both holding pints of Efes and asked what I'd like to drink. I looked across at the, Efes branded, bridges and selected a, you ...

... some Turkish flat bread sandwiches from a lady who was making them from scratch. She had tons of dough and she put in cheese and spinach and potatoes. I liked the potato one the most. And there was an old lady who was trying to make money by getting people to weigh themselves on her scale (it looked like she brought it from her bathroom.) Tallulah got weighed. There were lots of cats hanging around and trying to get some food. It was a fun morning.

... i promise to stop buying music off of itunes... i am sure you have noticed :-( sorry about that) Monday and Tuesday of this week were uneventful, but that is a good thing. Relative quiet is heartily welcomed during the week because it allows for everyone to store their energy for weekend excursions. However, i've been a little stir crazy this week and i went out for a little bit to just walk around last night. i felt cramped in my dorm room, which is about the size ...

... 5 directions. Our group are first to arrive, and find our table covered with small oval dishes of entrees - Russian salad, sausage, pickled vegetable, pickled beetroot, granular cheese, aubergine and bread. Were warned there would be no alcohol till later, then served drinks, including sodas, cherry juice, and red and white wine. Tried not to pig out on these too much, but then served a second course of the same ...

... but its getting warmer and I had very good weather each day. At times that was spoiled by the most smokers I've yet seen- it seemed everyone was smoking almost continuously, with the trains the only spot I found where it wasn't allowed, and good thing because at times they were packed nuts to butts. The food was good but often simple, and they had very good teas which were available pretty much any time any place. I hope to return and see other areas of ...

... that the stilettoed girls all still had to squat over a hole to go to the toilet. Our slow boat to Istanbul left the next day. We were starting to get worried when we saw the size of our boat (small) and the postcards we got before embarking that read "GOOD LUCK". No bon voyage for us. We were stunned and dismayed as we got aboard and noticed the deck furniture consisted of two moldy plastic lawn chairs, along with a variety of badly painted wooden ...