Maya Istanbul

... s a 98% Muslim population. For a city of this size (one of the biggest in the world) it’s not like what you’d imagine. There are no skyscrapers within a few miles of the main attractions of the city. And most of the places we are visiting are within walking distance. (Well, of course we probably do more walking than the average traveler.) Also, the "hustle and bustle" of the city isn’t as fast-paced and intense as most large cities. And it’s rare to ...

... women were wearing headscarves –
particularly because the night before in the trendy and affluent
social centre of Istanbul there was not a headscarf in sight among
the young Turks, and the clothing was far from conservative. I'm not
quite sure what conclusions to draw from this, but I'm sure that
these social divides play into the difficult and ongoing debate ...

... computer and I overheard one say to the other "Oh, Cricket, that's just like baseball for British people."

"So, where in the States are you from?"

I miss baseball, and I do like meeting Americans...

I learned that they were both from Minnesota. Among other things they were planning to go to Cappadocia, so I started telling them how fun it was and how they should rent motorscooters. I was considering whether or not to tell them about Fatboys, but they did look ...

... 305;es, trams and suburban raıl. After a day or two the system wasnt any more dıffıcult than navıgatıng the L ın Chıcago or the subway ın NYC. My fırst day was spent explorıng the major tourıst spots - Hagıa Sophıa, Blue Mosque, Spıce Bazaar, Fısh Markets and the Ottoman Palaces, etc. Everythıng was as ımpressıve as one would expect from a cıty wıth a legacy lıke Istanbuls, and I ...

... ancient ruins of the Hippodrome where the former Roman/Byzantine rulers raced chariots. Most of the Hippodrome has been destroyed today (although many of the stones were used to build the Blue Mosque) and all that remains are the ancient Egyptian Obelisk and Byzantine Obelisk. There is also a beautiful fountain that was given by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany during the late 19th century. We moved from there into the beautiful Blue Mosque, built by the famous Ottoman ...

... hij werkt op de stad, ik weet niet wat hij precies doet, maar het is in elk geval een belangrijke job, en hij krijgt overal vanalles gratis dankzij dat jobke. Aan Omer, een vriend van hem, die tijdelijk bij ons verblijft, hebben we eigenlijk niet zo veel, hij kan bijna geen Engels, en ookal zou hij dat kunnen, zijn interesse gaat meer uit naar de hele dag computerscherm ...

... which is something that has quite surprised me on this tour, German gets you very far, even though I would of course not like to admit it but even in Hungary and Romania you can get by with German more than English. The German had some great influence in the past. During our cycle we saw a few men with guns along the way, quite perculiar, and rather scary when you just gone into the bushes to have a toilet stop to then hear a noise nearby and a man with a ...

... a civil engineer, and Natalya who's just done a photography degree. In her 40's we have Jerri who is a writer specialising in cooking, textiles and travel. In their 50's and 60's are the two of us, and Fulvio, who has lived in Australia for nearly 40 years, but was originally from Italy. Arrange to all meet up at the hotel for dinner, then we're out for more exploring. First stop is the Basilica Cistern which was ...

... of Istanbul is also amazing. Cars don't stop for people, and everyone seems to be walking in the middle of the street. They also have cool trams on the roads with the cars. They always seem to be full of people. Besides looking forward to the Aya Sophia and the Blue Mosque, I am also looking forward to a great trip.

Place of 2007 annual trip was in Turkey. Turkey was an unexpected destination. I was planning to Czech originally but due to delay of multi-national visa application, I had to jump to another itinerary which wouln't take me too much time on collecting information. Then Turkey was my final choice. It was an unforgettable trip. The ...