Ritz Istanbul

... more time in this wonderful city and, more importantly, hit the grand bazaar with vengeance! Georgie's parents had previously travelled to Istanbul 30 years ago but the others had no idea what to expect. All were absolutely blown away by the ...

... for the Ritz Carlton. Mom and me jump on the metro and take it straight to the Ritz. I want to make this clear that the Ritz Carlton in Istanbul is and eye sore and it has a soccer field right in front of it. All around the area there are squadrons of ...

... hour train ride from Brasov to Bucharest, a four hour wait in the station, and then a 24 hour train ride from Bucharest to Istanbul. Needless to say, I was not excited. I have had some okay and some bad experiences with night trains thus far, and the ...

... wonderfully friendly and accommodating. You really feel at home and compared to some of the other hostels around it's practically the Ritz! Our bus to Goreme left Sultanahmet at 9 and we were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves on a warm (bliss!) ...

... was as bad as ever in the evening as people rushed home to prepare Iftar for their families. Saturday was traffic free day in Istanbul with people encouraged to use bicycles. At least this was the subject of an article in Monday's Turkish daily news. I ...

... combination of early starts and I have become a nervous flyer over the years but the flight was great and we manager to get to Istanbul safe.  Ian was great he knew what bus we had to catch to Taksim square and then we doubled up with another english ...

... futbol stadium, the dizzy-here sacred palace with armed guards, up a hill and onto the suspension bridge over the Bosphorous. Istanbul is actually very beautiful, especially when you can get such a good view. Plenty of trees and undulating hills; lots of ...

... our meal as he had a very long train ride to Athens, a shame we weren't traveling together longer. As it seems to be in Istanbul we spent the rest of the night sipping our chilled beers and smoking a shush pipe on the roof terrace, a true pleasure. ...

... , a feeling I only had once before, in downtown Hong Kong. Dr T wants to know what it reminds me of: Bangkok, Istanbul, Colombo, Budapest, Jerusalem? I cannot compare it to anything I saw before. And: I cannot speak with my mouth hanging open. We ...

... is I want to learn to travel CHEAP and by the seat of my pants. Stay tuned for updates. I'll start posting the day I leave Toronto and then try to make a daily posting once I'm in Istanbul. UPDATE (Sept 29th): Bought my ticket today!! Woo ...

... up 3 of the top 7 places, (but not the Euro 2008 Cup) TOP 10 EUROPE: 1 Florence, Italy 86.24 2 Rome, Italy 85.12 3 Istanbul, Turkey 84.61 4 Paris, France 82.59 5 Krakow, Poland 82.14 6 Prague, Czech Republic 81.81 7 Venice, Italy 81.74 8 ...

... ; GPJ absorbed its contents and declared..."I'd rather go to Syria than Turkey".  I was a bit astounded, planning for our trip to Istanbul and Cappadocia was well advanced.  "We could do both" I suggested and got a "hmmm.." in reply.  On ...

... A2 could continue recovering and rest up for a night train out of Hanoi.  Just as franchise food (Dominos Pizza) saved us in Istanbul when we were ill and could not consider eating Turkish food, so this time it was KFC in Vietnam. We wanted to ...

So now we've set foot in India how do we all feel? Honestly, so far it's not so good. The flight from Istanbul to Delhi was bearable enough; for the 30 year old plane we boarded did arrive in Delhi as promised and on time! But since we have arrived ...

... just were too amused by the backpack-toting foreigner to employ much effort to stop me.  For dinner, I found a Turkish restaurant "Little Istanbul" that had the European fast-food specialty donor kebaps, so I had to give it a shot.  The food was ...

A 3 week tour of Greece (with a side trip to Istanbul) will impart a sense of connectedness between Greeks today and their mythological gods and heroes. Impatience, hot-headed, firey tempers, epic dangers, and infidelity have all transcended the ages, ...