Olivier Hotel Istanbul

... need to check your pockets for matches, lighters, pocket knives, bottles of water or whatever. It is really sad and unfortunate that those days are long behind us.
I'm through almost half of my flights and with the exception of the flights within Australia and to and from Fiji, the rest of my flights are business class. Yippee. I so do love business class. At the moment, I'm in the lounge and I don't have ...

Hello from İstanbul! First of all, we are FİNE. The flooding, if you´ve heard about it, is way to the west of us. Not to mention we are on top of a really big hill, so it doesn´t matter! Our new neighborhood and Hostel have been great. We are staying right off the main drag, Istiklal Caddesi, where all of the döner kebap places are. It smells great here. We are also right in the middle of Ramadan, so apparently all of the Muslim Turks are ...

... nice (despite being buckeyes... im totally not biased ;-) - GO BLUE...ok im finished with my school pride bit )

later that night my roommates and i went to dinner with jason from ozyegin university and his advisor as a sort of farewell dinner.... we went to this restaurant called victor levi and it was wine house/french bistro type joint... to be honest, it wasnt that good but the ambiance made up for it.

Istanbul, Turkey ashbyers

... surfing site a few weeks prior and arranged our stay in Istanbul with him. His directions were great and after a nice bus ride through the city, a walk around Takim Square and a metro ride to Levent 4 we were standing in front of Bambinos waiting for our host. He arrived a few minutes late, all apologetic about his tardiness and then took off toward home as we followed behind. That night we were treated to Turkish Ravioli (which his mother had sent him from his home town ...

... their comments classed as freedom of speech (and that the law is ****ing retarded). I was also surprised to discover that they all had mobile phones and e-mail addresses and so on. I had never pictured conservative Muslim women as big users of mobile phones (which is a pretty ignorant view when I think about it). We all went into the Blue Mosque, the interior of which can only be described as stunning, and I was presented with a little book ...

... for the conversation, and for the Muslim festival we sat amidst. I couldn't help but think of all the negative and unfair things I have heard about Islam in the past seven years, and how much I wish more Americans could share in the genuine, heartfelt inter-national and inter-religious conversation I had just happened upon. Still on the flight to Istanbul, I examined a map of our newest destination. I told Casey: `You do realize that we are in ...

... Asceplion, an ancient medical center, and the Acropolis of Pergamon. Some very tall pillars reconstructed to give you an idea of how huge the place was. On to Troy. We watched the movie (with Brad Pitt as Achilles) in the van, which was more interesting than the ruins. There is not a whole lot left of Troy. There were actually 9 different cities built on the site over centuries, one on top of the other. An archaeologist's nightmare ... or dream come true ...

... learn, are a religiously liberal, long persecuted Shiite sect in central and eastern Turkey. And, we discover, they make great food! The Kaya brothers, we also learn, are, themselves, Alavi. I had told them before we started that I was treating, but when the bill came, they would not allow me to pay. Back onto the street to go for "the best Turkish coffee in Istanbul," which is served at what I believe is a ...

... empire until the Byzantines took the city then the Turks who placed a round Mosque on top of the constructed grand church and repainted the interior. It is said that the interior is still very much the same architecture as the old Basilica. We then walked over the Basilica Cistern, in the old Roman empire this place was used as a natural fridge for storage of foods and wines. This place is a cistern because there are many supportive pillars underneath the city ground and the ...

... no way! The minute they saw our non-Turkish faces, with our complete lack of Turkish language, plus the camera, no-one would let on there was a local fare. In the end we gave in - cos the tourist fare is actually very reasonable for a full day's entertainment. It was a great trip. There were a lot of people on board - mostly tourists, including a party of young schoolgirls from Konya - all in headscarves - that Tina struck up a conversation with (despite the lack of Turkish on her ...