Radisson SAS Conference & Airport Hotel Istanbul

... Now I am back in my room with a view and I should be packing too leave tomorrow but instead I am getting in bed with my mystery and going to sleep. Tomorrow I move back to Sultanhamet for my last night in Istanbul. I had tears in my eyes already today at the thought. I will also go to the Grand Bazaar because it is ridiculous to come all this way and not go. I don't plan to buy anything except for a new suitcase to pack the gifts I bought and the books I was given. Air ...

So after going through Belgrade again for the 3rd time in 4 weeks I wanted to put some distance between me and the Balkans. I jumped on the 24hour train from Belgrade to Istanbul, Turkey.<br><br>I toured around Istanbul for a couple of days then hired a car and drove 3000km in 7 days around half of Turkey. It was a phenomenal road trip, I'll be going back to see a few of the things I missed this time around.<br><br> <br>

... br><br><br><br><br><br>In Nepal, for instance, we passed hundreds of porters doing<br>backbreaking work to ensure that we would be able to buy snickers or<br>drink our favorite sodas or beers as we trekked. We complained about<br>the food, but how much easier would it have been to provide foreigners<br>with a set menu of Dhal Bat everywhere, rather than trying so hard to<br>appease them with a menu more diverse than that of 95% of Nepalese<br>people. The porters and guides ...

... just a few marginally smaller ones. We didn't take the laptop with us, so I'm typing the hand written notes verbatim, to give an idea of what it was like at the time. So, lets get on with it.... Felt wrecked from our early start, combined with the stress of having a 2-hour cab ride with the fuel guage below 'Empty' for the whole way. Checked in at the Intrpid office - met the manager who gave us some Turkish apple tea (later we found out its nicknamed 'Tourist ...

... felt a little guilty because I told the guy I was going to play pool. The club sucked. 50 Yuan to get in and 30 for a beer. I had to pay for the Brit too. I got 200 rubles out of it though, and he paid me back the next day which I wasn't really expecting. The club was crowded, expensive, and Chinese which are my three favorite things. The floor did move which was cool. I'm not going to a club here again, but now I can say I've done it.

Well, the fun had to come to an end at some point!  Breakfast was the usual-fruit, toast, coffee, olives, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  But that was beside the point as we were anxious to get to the spice market! We decided to take a taxi to save time and walking so there was more time for shopping!  It took less than 10 minutes to get there and the market was just coming to life as we arrived.  Most of ...

... us ate, and then each of us were served lamb and peppers along with bread. Following lunch we went to the Bacilica Cistern. It was an amazing water supply system from the Roman days and was used as a set for filming the James Bond movie, From Russia with Love. Then to the Haggai Sophia- an incredible building and the Blue Mosque ...

... side of the city. We were told that 65% of the residents of the Asian side (mainly residential) work on the European side (mainly commercial) making traffic horrible. Many take ferries and there are plans to extend the subway under the Bosporus but there are no quick solutions. We went to Camlica Hill on the Asian side for terrific views of old Istanbul. On the way there we passed a 7-11 (no Big Gulps I'm told) and one of the many Starbucks locations. The bus ...

... around the Spice Bazaar, a great place. Aside from pushy guys trying to sell vividly colored spices to my mom, there were so many other kinds of food. The grossest was an entire goat head, skinned, but complete with eyes and teeth. I wanted to take a picture! The night before we left, my mom decided she wanted to buy souvenirs. So we went out at like 10 pm looking for quality, artsy things. My mom picked the worst touristy place that I had ever seen...in ...

A long, long day on the 3rd and into the 4th for the trip to Istanbul. Woke up at 6am on the 3rd to get a good start on the drive from Virginia Beach to Istanbul - Tina had thought she'd done well booking the flight out on a Mon to avoid the horrendous weekend crowds driving back from the beach on Sun, only to find out when it was too late to change anything, that Mon 3rd was Labour Day and the official end of summer (before start of the school year) and so Mon would be ...