Istanbul for 3 days

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  Istanbul, Turkey
Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Hi everyone

Well we made it to our first honeymoon destination: Istanbul. Our pilot for the flight was fantastic. He had a bald head and a blonde handlebar moustache and Raybans. So while he stood watching passengers sit down, I whispered and jiggled a YMCA dance routine from my seat!!

Our Hotel was wonderful. Very, very tall and narrow resembling a tall, thin Canal house right out of Amsterdam. Our Hotel was situated right in the heart of Sultanahmet which is a small district just outside of the City of Istanbul. Sultanahment is absolutely gorgeous with little winding cobbled streets, but also big main roads with trams rumbling past and yellow taxis zooming around like they are in New York!! On our first day here, we walked through a large park with ruinous relics to wonder at, ate corn on the cob bought from a trolley vendor, strolled through the town taking in all the shops, bustle, noise and worringly lots of small boys dressed in white Turkish satin with feather head dress. I now know this is a celebratory costume for a boys circumsicion ritual. Apparently, it's a big party and parents lavish presents and money and everyone is happy: apart from the small boy who is now in the Ministry of Funny Walks Club. And in tears.

Our first night here we discovered a Mystic Musical Concert was on with Whirling Dervishes. What luck! so we got ourselves down to the Events Hall at the train station where the Orient Express first departed for far flung countries many moons ago.

The station is absolutely beautiful with stained glass and the most beautiful tiled ceilings.

A Breakfast Cereal!!

Hords of us were seated on plastic chairs as we listened to exquisite Turkish music by an orchestra with plant pots on their heads accompanied by the Whirling Dervishes consisting of men wearing long white dresses and spinning round and round and round and round and round. It was a stunning display and actually depicts an 800-year traditional dance of love and the give and take of love and happiness to enrich your soul. Very beautiful story. Which I can't remember!!

Back at our Hotel, we often sat on the roof terrace in the dark night, mesmorised. There was the massive Blue Mosque next to our Hotel which was lit up with orange night lights and seagulls, tinted orange from the Mosque lights, would cirle the minarets like shreds of paper fluttering in the wind, while they tried to catch moths and flies. It was exquisite sight. A few snog-a-roonies occurred under the stars here!!

As our Hotel was so central not only did we regularly fall asleep to amplified calls for Prayer Time by the Blue Mosque, but we also fell asleep to the melodic soft sounds of Turkish "chill out" music from the nearby bar. You would imagine all this noise would have driven you to suicide valley but it was really lovely. Lying in the dark, snuggling, listening through our open window to the gentle music and amplified Prayer Calls. Much better than my husband's bloody snoring anyway!!

On our 2nd day we walked to The Grand Bazaar. Nothing could have prepared us. We knew it would be an amazing experience but the reality was incredible.

Hinge and Brackett from the pub!

The Grand Bazaar is a massive massive rabbit warren of shops, alley ways,corridors, stalls and archways selling every single solitary thing you could possibly want. It's a sensory explosion of shouting traders imploring you in, tourists haggling, smells of leather, carpets, incence, perfumes, the most beautiful rich colours and fabrics of bags, clothes and cushions, rows and rows of Turkish Delights, teas, sweets and more jewellry shops then in the Birmingham Jewellry Quarter! I soon learnt (with a bit of research and observation) that I needed to be tough if I wanted those 2 gorgeous pashminas. So I asked the price, replied with a firm "No!" and started to walk off whereby I would then be implored back with a desperately lower price and I would say "No! too much" and again turn my back to walk off, another lower offer from Mr Pashmina, another "NO! it's too much" from me and the final lowest price ever and a firm handshake and smiles all round. Mr pashmina told David, "your wife...she is tough!" hahahahaha

After this, we went to the Spice Market which is the same as the Grand Bazaar but full of spices!! It wasn't as exciting as anticipated. It was a hive of packed pungent spices and gorgeous herbs swinging from high above the stalls but it also sold slippers, knickers and decorative Arabian Night lampshades in exotic colours!! David wasn't too sure how he could cook with a sheepskin slipper and a nylon g-string but I gave him some suggestions.

We then wandered round the town where I saw some live chicks waiting to be ....

Honeymoon Medicine!!!

well I won't go into it. Some leeches in a jar full of water waiting for..... medicinal purposes it said on the label!! (apparently Demi Moore has them put onto her to lose weight!!???! I can't imagine the size of the leeches post-Demi Moore!). We couldn't resist a McDonalds where we had a koftee burger! Koftee is like a meatball but instead of mince meat it's vegetables and is delicious. Someone told us to try the McDonalds in every country as their burgers are specific to each country!!

While we were in Istanbul, we never had a bad meal. The food is absolutely gorgeous and everyone is so friendly. We walked past one restaurant and on their board outside they were advertising "Shepherd's Fry". Hearing us laughing, the waiter came up and questioned us and we explained it was actually supposed to be Shepherd's Pie, NOT Fry!! but I told him not to correct it as the mistake would draw tourists in! So we decided to have dinner there one night and I opted for Shepherd's Fry. I was expecting something like you'd get down the Nags Head in Blighty. No. What I got was a bunson burner with a live flame and a big wok on top of it with lamb and vegetables and oil and spices and herbs frying away. I just had to eat it from this. It was DELICIOUS. David had moussaka and it was to die for :) so much for us trying to tell the locals how to spell!!!

We went on a tourist ferry ride down the Bosphorous to the Black Sea. The sun was out and the wind was most definitely in our hair!! it took about 1.5 hours and when we got to our final destination, a small village, we all got off and walked about 1 mile up a very steep hill on uneven craggy paths and rocky steps to the ruins of a castle which looked out over the Black Sea.

Mosque at night with birds

The view was breathtaking. You felt like you were literally on top of the world. In fact you could see the curveture of the Earth. It blew me away. The sea was just the deepest sapphire ever and the clouds shadows shifted silently across the water. I could have stayed there all day. Magnificent. These stray dogs chased all us tourists up to the castle as they were all on the scrounge and then they just sat and panted while looking out to sea. Gorgeous photo taken. Then David and I had lunch at a fish restaurant at the village harbour and we watched this heron-type bird diving into the water next to our table and gobble fish. He caught one massive fish and couldn't get it down his throat so David and I and several other tables were in fits laughing at his attempts to get this desperate flapping fish down his throat!!! greedy bastard!!

One night, we read in a tourist book on Istanbul, to head into Istanbul itself to an area called Taksim-Habib where there are lots of jazz clubs, cabaret bars and restaurants. The tourist information man recommended it too. We had to get on the tram, then the subway to get there (30mins journey in all). When we got there it was like the M25!!! we thought it would be a small quaint Turkish village!!!!! there were two cabaret nightclubs - one was called "The Crazy Horses Show" and the photos on the billboard outside showed belly dancing girls dressed up as feathery horses cavorting on the tables as diners ate!!! nice. We decided to give Crazy Horses a miss. There was one really cool jazz bar that we stumbled upon but blink and you would have missed it but they weren't serving food, only drinks so we left there and then stumbled upon this tiny cafe/restaurant that we got lured into. We were so starving at this point so we succombed and we had lamb kebabs which were absolutely bleedin' scrumptious!!!

We also went to Topkapi Palace which was stunning. The entrance is like a Disney cartoon Castle entrance where a handsome Prince would come galloping out of the gate charging into the forest. Very romantic. The grounds were expansive, scenic, tranquil. Mostly inside, we saw jewels, jewels and more jewels, swords, big swords and scary swords and swords you just don't want to meet in a dark alley but also the most stunning mosaics and ceramic tiles. I can't tell you the history of Topkapi Palace right now as I haven't got a book to copy it from!!!!!!!! but it was very interesting. Basically all about worshipping every single item ever owned by prophets. Like Moses' Rod. Everything is sacred and can't ever be touched!!!

Well, folks, that's our Istanbul experience. We were only there for 3 days but we had a ball. Met some really terrific locals, ate some gorgeous food, listened to some exquisite Turkish music and walked for frigging miles all over the place.

Our next destination is India. We are at Jordan Airport now waiting for our connecting flight. Keep reading our blogs

please!!!

Lots of love

Lois and Hubby xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Mr and Mrs P	Spice Market	The Grand Bazaar	Topkapi Palace entrance
Whirling Dervishes

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