Ortakoy Princess Istanbul

... at the variety of the shops, the richness and variety of the goods on sale and the cleanliness of the place. This latter was evident throughout the centre of the city but when we mentioned the fact that we had seen very little graffiti to one of the guides he suggested that things were very different in the suburbs! The displays of jewellery, clothes. lanterns, food, etc in bright colours created a magic kaleidoscope and we found the Turkish folk to be uniformly ...

... in between ice cream and marshmallows.<br><br>As for the wonderful people, we met a bunch during our time. Many thanks to Mustafa (a cousin of a friend) who was kind enough to meet us out for a day in Istanbul. Despite Mustafa's kind attention, the "best person of the year award goes to"...well, we don't remember her name. Anyway, we went to the Asia side of Istanbul (it is three parts...the Asia side is rarely visted by tourists but we ...

... bit of<br>traffic. But having a driver who knew where he was going and how to get<br>there was a welcome difference from so many of the cab rides we have<br>had over the past 3 months. When we arrived in Istanbul, our driver<br>needed his boss to give him directions to Sultanahmet, where we were<br>staying, which is right in te heart of the old city. He had never<br>heard of the hotel, so immediately upon arrival in that part of town he<br>began asking every third person ...

... conversation at lunch.  not much else to report... im sorry if you feel let down by the brevity of this entry. i wish that i had more crazy stories to tell you like i did last year but things are more predictable when working rather than taking classes. i think thats almost better though, because routine is a good thing. who knows what tomorrow will bring though, right? besos. 

... ferry back over to the european side. We went to an underground cistern first and even though i didn't really understand what were going to at first, I couldn't help but love it because it was just so mind boggling how something like that could have ever been built. It was facinating really. There is also a legend about Medusa's head being turned to stone there too. Next we headed to ...

... walking through a backstreet on Istanbul, a clearly evil, gnarled Turkish woman with bushy hair caught sight of us and suddenly burst into loud, hysterical laughter, pointing at us and yelling something in Turkish to some men across the street, cackling in a very alarming, evil manner. A witch, perhaps. I am worried she put a curse on us. I went shopping with Melanie at the Grand Bazaar and spent a lot of money on Turkish apple tea, a silver Turkish tea pot and tea cups, a tiny ...

... and he says neither any prayers to the Gods of the shore was done by him, when the boat was coming from the newest sea all the way to the clear lake But these events came earlier; now you are old in a hidden rest and dedicates itself to you the twin Castor and twin of Castor. - poem taken from http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text 2/e4.htm well, dear reader, i will now post pictures for your viewing pleasure and will store up puns and witty tales for you next time.

... rested at the hotel for a bit, then headed out for dinner at a cool restaurant called Deep in the newer, hipper part of town (Taksim). This area was very busy and very Turkish, and we were so relieved to get away from the overwhelmingly-touristy Sultanamet. After dinner, we walked down Istikal Cadessi, the main pedistrian strip with thousands of Turks surrounding us, out ...

... my flight to Adana for early the following morning. It was Sunday, there was FA cup football on back home, so I figured I´d spend my afternoon/evening in the same pub in which last year I´d spent a memorable day watching Six Nations rugby with an old Irish Canadian man named Eugene. I strolled into the pub as if it were my local, propped myself in the same bar-side seat as last year, and prepared for an evening of football. Alas, this time without the excellent company of Eugene.

We thought we'd have a relaxing day on a boat cruise up the Bosphorus, but slept in a bit late, then spent too long getting organised and then realised we wouldn't get down to the ferry in time for the 10.30 am sailing. There was another one going at 1.30pm so no problem. Decided to go off to see the Blue Mosque and the AyaSofia in the morning instead. They are only a few blocks from our hotel, so a nice walk away. Arrived to find a squillion people lined up for the AyaSophia ...