Turkey - istanbul
Trip Start
Apr 08, 2006
1
15
41
Trip End
Oct 07, 2006
Istanbul,
Turkey
Thursday, July 6, 2006
Going through the border took a little while longer we expected. After clearing the Greek Customs we reached the Turkish border. First the Police with Passports, then Customs, Passports, getting a new Green Card (3rd. Party insurance is reasonable) and then the fight to get our Carnets stamped....and we did'nt win! They just don't want to stamp our carnets because as they say.... they are part of Europe. It did not matter how much we disagreed, they just would not budge. After 3 hours at the border we gave up and continued on to Istambul still in gusty winds and sampling our first bad road, full of patched up pot holes
01 - Ýstanbul Blue Mosque (and locals)
.Istambul is a City of 10M. inhabitants and cover such a huge area that it makes Sydney look like a Country Town. We managed to survive the traffic, got lost a couple of times, got infos from helpful people, rode over a tramway line (for trams and motorbikes only) and eventually found a basic Hotel near a huge Mosque and close by the seaside. The roof top terrace has a view over the sea. My room is very quiet and for the first time in weeks I managed to sleep right through the night.
The next day was supposed to be motorbikes maintenance and we spent almost all day finding a BMW Dealer. The price quoted for an oil change was horrendous, so we bought the oil filters only and will do the oil change ourselves a bit later on.
The cost of petrol in Turkey is A$ 2.60 a litre, almost A$55.00 to fill up my 21lits. Tank! Makes you wonder how people can afford to own a car!
Today we are doing the tourist things, visiting Mosques, Bazaars etc.
There are numerous little eating places quite reasonable in price.
MeleMele is not going to write anything to you all, so don't waste your time hoping for some words from her
02 - Istanbul Aga Sophýa (mosque - museum)
! She does say (in between mouthfuls of Turkish Delight) the food is very good and stop annoying me while I'm eating.Mark The bike is going great (I'm feeding it Turkish Delight now as well)... I think it will make it Mum! Istanbul is not very cheap but it has been a nice place to regroup for the rest of the country. The people, incredibly helpful and friendly and it is very (Mele... fashionable!) easy to escape the carpet sellers (with a free cup of Apple Tea). Traffic is as chaotic as everywhere but at least everyone sticks to their lanes (mostly). Did go on a ferry ride on the Bosphorous Sea and checked out all the multi-million Lira homes are... and there are plenty... just like Sydney... along with big sailing boats moored out the front. Not a bad place to live all in all.
