Paradise Istanbul

... as a dawf hurried past balancing a tray full of glasses of Turkish tea and and shrieked "VELCOME TO TURKEY". It was like something out of the Disney version of Twin Peaks. Turkish people, I have learnt, are very helpful and friendly.

The following three days I fought against a strong headwind, sometimes my usual 30 kph on the flat was reduced to 10kph. The flat meant agriculture, very few trees and only animals permitted by man.

Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey jimmymacfad

... and then left without buying anything. I even had to go back, because in the great headgear-trying, I left my own hat amongst all the others.

We reached the old tramway on the top of the hill, heading straight for Taksim square. Following its path, we met a very different part of Istanbul, where the people on the street were no longer trying to get you into the bars and cafes like down on the bottom of the hill. Lined with shops, brand names peppering the unknown Turkish ...

... was discussed and portrayed on our trip
around Egypt, with a very cynical tone surrounding the religion of
ancient Egyptians. And its partly due to Obama's speech in Cairo, that
emphasized similarities rather than differences, and what I have seen
traveling the world, that has showed me that across continents and
cultures we have a lot more in common than we think.







< br>But its also in part due to Shantaram, in which a ...

Walked around the old part of Istanbul today checkżng out the old Hippodrome where they did chariot races in the old times, the Blue Mosque and the old Byzantine church and now mosque (Hagia Sophia) and then the Great Bazaar where I was hassled all afternoon. Heading to Cappdocia tomorrow.

... tram to our hostel. Istanbul was full of great people, great food, and great cultures and we experienced them all. We saw the Mosque of Suleyman, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and the Topika Palace. The mosques where magnificent with there colors and mosaics. When we arrived at both the Mosques we had to wait as they were in the middle of the prayer services. Five times a day chants are sung from the top of the mosques ...

September 4, 2008 Istanbul, Turkey When Helen and I were in Selcuk, Aydin took us to look at a piece of property, and I fell in love with it. I had never given a single thought to buying property in Selcuk, but the more I was there, the more I fell in love with it. When I expressed interest, Aydin said he had to check with the owner of the property to see if he was willing to sell. When we were in Bulent's shop in Istanbul on Helen's last day, I got a call from Aydin with good news ...

... tricks before I could finally taste the ice cream. Rather than being creamy, it has a jelly-like, elastic texture in the middle. Delicious! By the time we reached our dorm, we were exhausted. My roommate and I definitely, definitely wanted to go back out to Taksim later in the night (it was Saturday night!) and decided to nap in preparation. Either other people were way too tired or they are not partiers (hopefully the former), Laura and I found ...

... able to speak (a little of) their own language. I felt a lot more like a Turk there than a foreigner.. which is weird. It could also be that Istanbul gets a lot more package-tourists, who stick out in the most ackward ways. I took a ferry up the Bosphorous, which was great, if not a little crowded. I had to sit on the floor of the boat, which wasn't all that clean but what the hell. It was still nice. The last stop was on the Asian side of Istanbul on ...

... on their way out of the garden. Pam and I met up for dinner again and had a nice meal in the backstreets of Sultanhamet behind the Aya Sofia then lots of zzzzz's. Tonight I am meeting with Pam for another hamam...this one designed by the famous architect, Sinan. I'll write more later about it. Tomorrow...hop on an early shuttle to the airport for my short flight to Athens. Will finally get to see the Acropolis/Parthenon and other famous Greek sites!

bus to istanbul full of romanian smugglers taking advantage of the outrageously cheap duty free booze and smokes and the expensive prices in turkey. the bus hostess handing out bottles of JD to the passengers to put in their baggage to avoid the border turkish border inspection. the lame border inspection which i'm sure was subsidised by the bus driver and ...