Movenpick Hotel Istanbul

... the ticket booth was a free-for-all. Needless to say, logistics is not something the Turks seem to excel at. Once inside, the four of us wandered around and soaked in the interior. We each ventured off on our own at some point inside church, but in the end, we completely lost Jo. I'm not sure how long we were looking for Jo, but we were beginning to worry that she had been sold to the slave trade. Dave was the hero for ...

... takes the same pictures and does a darn good job of it, but you can't be sure completely of the picture you are taking, and since it is a new camera there isn't even a view finder on the thing. I was devastated, and I had no idea how it could have happened.

I thought and though and thought.

One trick pony...

The only explanation is that for whatever reason I had taken my camera out with me that night. I have a hard case with a long strap that I always loop ...

... Even after telling them I had too many carpets, they suggested maybe I didn't have ones I liked. Come on. You know, they're really good salesmen. They walk with you; try to engage you in conversation; then invite you in for Turkish hospitality; etc. It's difficult to just walk past them. You want not to be rude, but there's a limit. Enough already. Ok, there were some beautiful carpets; you know it took all the ...

... huge semi-dark cavern under the city. Later, I visited Aya Sofya. Not as striking as the Blue Mosque from the outside but easily more impressive on the inside. This had been a church, then a mosque and was now a tourist attraction. It was huge on the inside, there was scaffolding that reached all the way to the top of the dome and even though it ruined the view a little it was still an impressive sight in ...

... i's' open to the left. And the j's' wild loops sometimes resemble Arabic calligraphy. What's the point of all of this? Simply that Finjid's name was one of my all-time favorite words to write, with its swirling disharmony. (I'm sorry; did I say last time I'm a practical person? I guess that only applies to overcoming difficult travels.)

Finjid, a Dutch truck driver, said he could drive me to Istanbul, if only I could wait twenty-four hours. I ...

... started speaking turkish. really, i dont think this day could be more unnerving. hopefully tomorrow will be another story. oh and also, i FINALLY met the other girl from michigan who goes here - she said she never got my emails but im pretty sure that i never got any return emails from mailerdaemon or whatever the email returners name is. c'est la vie.

... were trying to sell us bottles of Perfume ....actually water and some scent. They were annoying and disturbing us and some women bought one or two bottles just to have some privacy and let them enjoy their lunch. Others were selling shirts and scarves. We reach our hotel which was centrally situated at Taxim Square. It was the Euro Plazza 3 star hotel.....My impressions? I've never been to such a hotel in my entire life. There was no Isolation between the ...

... the Bospherous river area and walked around the area to explore what was out there. The Bospherous area is the river that runs between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It is where Asia and Europe meet and where Istanbul (not Constantinople) now sits. The area consists of various shops, restaurants and boat tours that run up and down the Bospherous (we planned on going tomorrow). We then proceeded to walk across the bridge to an area called "Taksim" Not sure what it means ...

... vizier has done and confiscates it himself. The buck(s) really did stop with the sultan and its kept there to this day. The bejewelled Topkapi Dagger, 5 ft tall gold candlesticks, ancient miniatures - they're all here, and people flock to see it. However, the guard they have on duty is not really a people person and just wants the hordes out. OUT Ý SAY! People having the insolence to stop and read the captions were ...

... Then the ladies worked up an incredible amount of soap lath** and proceeded to scrub us silly with these loofah gloves. I honestly don't know how she managed to get so much lath**, but the massage/scrub (more of a scrub than a real massage) felt amazing! Aft** 2 months of traveling and sleeping in sketchy hostels, it felt SO good to get SO clean! She even scrubbed my feet until they sparkled! Aft** a good 20 minutes of scrubbing and a little massaging, we w**e each led to a ...