Surmeli Istanbul Hotel

Tuttavad näod - inglased, lätlane, prantslased ja hispaanlased. Enamus neist arvab, et pean nendega nende oma keeles suhtlema. Sarmite väljaarvatud, temaga pean purssima vene keelt.<br>Saan oma ettekande eest kiita ja moodustame horvaatide, bulgaarlaste, slovaki ja Igoriga slaavi rakukese.<br>Õhtusöögi ajal veetakse kogu kampa laevaga mööda Bosporust. Algul ...

... took us out. The floor almost singed the soles of our feet, and we ran for the basins, grabbed the plastic bowls and poured ice-cold water over us and under our feet to make the whole thing bearable. Jon said he didn't even like saunas, he wasn't sure why he even agreed to such a thing. <br><br>Eventually, after enough hot and cold bowls of water in our faces and over our heads, we went back to the cooler, outer room, and were grabbed by two burly man and told to ...

... be saved and<br>Christianity is "easy," they might agree on further familiarization<br>that Christianity lacks the formal 5 pillar foundation of Islam. Is it<br>in the 10 commandments? Well, that is Jewish as well...and...perhaps<br>surprisingly... also accepted within Islam. The 5 pillars seem to me to<br>be pretty tough to follow...well at least 4 of the 5. The first,<br>saying that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is his prophet<br>is pretty easy. But praying ...

... the area that becomes a meeting ground at night after iftar.  Things weren't quite open but it was enough to see that it had a carnival like atmosphere of food.   Next up was the Cistern.  This was great cause it was underground and cool!  It cost 10lira($7) to go in there and it really was pretty cool. :-)  From the Cistern, it was back outside to the heat and over to the Hagia Sofia.  The entrance here was 20lira($14) but so worth it!  Before going in, sat ...

... hair into snakes out of jealousy. Thus comes the story of people turning to stone when they looked at Medusa. Unfortunately for her again - when Perious heard of this he cut off her head and so on and so on. Following the Basillica Cistern, we mosied our way to the Aya Sofia. It is an enormous building whose name means, 'Church of Devine Wisdom'. It is the most famous monument in Istanbul and was completed in ...

... David, an Australian guy I had met at Ben Gurion aorport came to the rescue and lent me the £10 required. Istanbul was a last minute decision made that morning. My parents invited me to join them in their suite in a luxury hotel for the week and I figured 'what the heck', booked a $179 return flight from Tel Aviv, packed, and left. I sit now in our suite overlooking the Bosphorus river where music from the posh nightclub across the road just about ...

... don't even get me started on the cheese rolls! Ok, I will only say that I thought I would explode I was so full, but then out came the free cheese rolls and I gingerly ate them. Fine, fine, my unknown demon of gluttony emerged and I stuffed them into my mouth and somehow down into my gut (which is the same size still, thank goodness), but they were soooo goooooooood. That leads me perfectly into our Turkish food segment. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH ...

... it once I get it home makes no sense. Then Julie shows me how to do the drape/wrap. Ok sold. Back to the bus to show everyone else. I mention they have other colors. Out we go, and I scoop up some more. The girls show me patiently how to do the "girly girl" thing with the scarves. I know that when I get home, my "wraps" and "drapes" are not going to look like theirs, but I just can't tell them. We're driving to Gallipoli and thru Gallipoli, Turkey's famous battlefield. A ...

... the driver, who did not seem to speak much English, and therefore be stuck by the side of the highway for hours. Upon finally getting to the airport, the meter was way more than the 35 YTLs the hotel quoted, but I just gave him the rest of my Turkish money &amp; went inside. Phew! I'm posting some of the pictures, but the captions might still be changed since Kat has the books with the correctly spelled names &amp; identities of all the places we visited.

... in de overdekte markthallen. Heel apart. Telkens word je "kijken kijken niet kopen" nageroepen. Overal moet je afdingen om iets goedkoop te krijgen, waarna later blijkt dat jet het toch veel te duur hebt gekocht. Via een kennis van een klasgenoot zijn we 's avonds naar een voetbalwedstrijd tussen Besiktas en Denizli geweest. Met een overvolle tram moesten we een eind Istanbul in. We stopten om het laatste ...