Konak Hotel Istanbul

Today i was able to meet up with a bunch of couch surfers to do a day trip to the princes islands. i left little time to get to the ferry terminal which was the meeting place, so i basically ran about 2 or 3 km. met with everyone had had heaps of fun. our two local tour guides found a restaurant and negotiated some discounts for us and we all had a bit of a feast for lunch outside in the sun.

then we all rented bikes ...

... we have spent walkıng around, eatıng kababs, roasted corn, baklava cakes and jacket potatoes. The Grand Bazzar ıs amazıng. I have my hagglıng down to an art form and have pıcked up some goods for very cheap. I dont know ıf I want them or I just love to haggle. I ask prıce; go 70 percent below and then come up about 10 percent . . . wıth the exchange rate, you cant beat the deals here!

Our nıghts, we spend sıpp ...

... for fun -- on Sundays, there\s kind of a multi-block garment market where turkish people buy tee shirts and skrits and scarves and batteries from stalls set up on the street). Got to one of the mosques that won't be on our tour agenda. And so on. Finally found the tram line and was able to follow that to a neighborhood I recognized..... I need to leave trails of breadcrumbs.

This is fun......

... which is a feast for the senses, you can pick up just about any spice know there. After that I made the rounds at the Grand Bazaar, picked up a few souvenirs and some Turkish Delight. I spent the afternoon in the Underground Cistern, which was one of my favorite sights. It is like an underground city that was used to hold water and is amazing with dozens of elaborate pillars. Istanbul was more incredible than I could have imagined. More to come from Moscow

... station on it's oppressive atmosphere. It has over a hundred ticket offices, about three levels of buses, a hotel, a police station, a mosque, about twenty restaurants and little cafes, at least three web cafes (all useless) and one exchange centre (which was of course closed the day I was there). Of course I knew absolutely none of this at the time- I had no idea where I was. I wasn't even sure I was in Istanbul (it seems like the kind of ...

... home about midnight and Mom and Lu were already asleep.  It was a great night. This morning, it was pouring with rain for the first time on our trip. We decided to have breakfast and by the time we were finished, it was only raining a little so we walked to the ferries. We took at big ferry all the way up the Bosphurus under the Bosphurus bridge towards the Black Sea. We saw lots of old houses on the Europe side, made of wood and lots of boats. It ...

... under the new name of Istanbul. The layout of the palace features a series of interconnected courtyards which progress inwards, from the first, which was open to all citizens, through to the fourth, where the sultans had their gardens and harem and private living area. For this visit, we got an audio tour. The place is huge. I've linked to information on it so if you so desire you can read more about it. I'll just mention a few of the things. Our first ...

... cure. From here we head south on an 11 hour bus trip to the city of Bergama. While we've enjoyed Istanbul it is always nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of a big city and go where the pace of life is slow. It's this and much more we hope to find when we arrive at our next destination. We'll tell you if we are successful when we post again. Until next time... Jon and Liz

... of Istanbul. We really did not do much that day, as we were still recovering from the train ride and catching up on our sleep. For dinner that night we ate at a great restaurant in Sultanahmet that served Kofte, a kind of meatball served with banana peppers and a red chile paste. One thing that immediately struck us was how prominent the Muslim call to prayer is. There are loud speakers at the tops of every mosque's ...

... They talk to you but its not like in New York where they get aggressive if you ignore them. But then I haven't been here very long... So last night was interesting, I taught the boys at the Ranch how to play Fuzzy Duck--it was the only game I could think of that wasn't heavy on the English. They took to it well, well, like ducks to water. Of course then it took a turn for the worse once the Raku became involved... I really ...