Ramada Plaza Istanbul City Center

... come at 10:30 this morning and I took a cab from the University and was there. Balat is on the sea and was the original Jewish section of Istanbul.<br><br>The door was closed, I knocked, a small window opened and I handed my passport to the man. These precautions are because there were two suicide bombing at two synagogues in Istanbul in 2003 and 27 people were killed and about 300 were injured, mostly Muslims. They are very alert and you cannot just go in. I ...

... they don't live on the street, and they don't steal. And<br>that is one of the amazing things about the impact that tourism has on<br>communities. What is small and insignificant to us is life changing<br>for those we interact with. <br><br><br><br><br><br>When I saw Henry in Jordan, the stoic future marine asked me if I<br>felt like a wuss because Kristen and I had a porter on the Annapurna<br>Circuit. I told him that no, of course I didn't and still don't. More<br ...

... Istanbul yesterday afternoon and began to explore. Cairo was great preparation, I think now I can cross any street in the world, and I have become oblivious to the cafe and shop owners summoning you in. I can't even begin to describe the differences between Istanbul and Cairo, yet it seems oddly familiar. Istanbul is a great mix of European advancement with a taste of the old world ...

... some suitable clothes for Iran. Found a blue dress and headscarf which aren't too bad considering; I'm mainly glad to have it sorted out and I don't have to panic now!<br style=""> <br style=""> <br><br>We then headed back to the hostel, showered, and went to dinner. We found a small restaurant with an interesting guy as the head waiter. We were sat next to the window and he spent the majority of the meal checking himself out in the window as he talked to ...

Night 1 started with the mats and sleeping bags trying to snooze on Gatwich Airports floor, as London received the biggest dump of snow in 18 years, getting to the airport in the morning was not an option. 1st night a roaring success! Landed in Istanbul and found the hostel after a shuttle bus, tube, tram and some "hiking". Hostel was a wicked ...

Hello, This weekend we decided to try two new adventures. On Saturday we went to the world's third biggest mall, Jawahar, and on Sunday we went to the historic castle Garipce in the township of Rumelifeneri. In order for us to get to the mall we had to take two mini-busses and the subway. Most of the residents using the transit system have an "ack bil" which is an electronic devise you can put on your keychain and load up with money. This ...

... if you enjoy loud honking, speeding cars and squealing tires, it was a great little spot. You also are unable to get to the water as infront of the benches is a wide walkway followed by a rough (and most likely painful) downwards tumble on huge rocks and boulders that went to the water about 10 feet away. The rocks were easy to walk on and there were one or two people that we could see sitting on them in the sun. We were ...

The second day we had to check out of the hotel and take our luggage with us to the customer's office. Boris had to get to the airport right after the meeting and Joseph &amp; I hitched his ride, arranged by the customer. We got in an hour nap at the airport, business class lounge, and headed to Istanbul for the night. The taxi ride from the Istanbul airport was about an hour and a half due to traffic ...

... an $80 taxi ride, which was as expensive as the flight. Great. We found our destination, Homeros Pension, and met Dervish, the awesome owner of the place. He was so nice to us, giving us a bottle of blueberry wine on Christmas, letting us use the internet at his own house, and just generally being a great friend (although he seemed to be a little too friendly with Alie). Every night we went to the living room of the hotel where Dervish's mom made us ...

... in the bathroom and ended up with a bright yellow patch in the ****** of his shorts surrounded by an even bigger wet patch. Did get some strange looks! Trouble with a flight that leaves at 4pm, takes 6 hours and arrives at 6am in Frankfurt is that by the time you are actually feeling like going to sleep, they wake you for breakfast! Another breakfast (and lots of coffee) in the lounge at Frankfurt, then a 3 hour flight to Istanbul - on which we got yet another breakfast ...