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Arriving in Istanbul we followed the Carrino's, Justin and Cris, to the accomodation they had booked in advance, the Orient Hostel in the Sultanahmet district of the city. Lucky enough to find space in the dorm, Joel goes out to do whatever he does whilst i get busy doing the thing i do best- get into bed for a big fat sleep! Waste the rest of the day recovering in slumberland, waking up around 6pm for dinner which we have just around the corner from the hostel where we meet Hakan, the friendliest maitre d on the planet, and go back to the foodstuff we know and love, kebabs. When in Rome, eat pasta. When in Turkey, gorge yourself on animal flesh! After the most unhealthy meal yet, its back to bed. I would never cope with a 9-5 existence!
The next day we do "the sights" meaning the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. At the Aya Sofia we got conned into having a tour guide around the place, though afterwards we realised that this really wasnt necessary. Mustafa, very pleased by my name as I was both the first man on the planet and his first group of
the day, the cause of which we realised by the end, enjoyed walking us around and explaining the history of the building, which he seemed to hold dearly in his heart. He explained that there had been a number of churches and mosques on the site which had been destroyed over the ages. After this he explained (not in the best english) that the reason everyoone was surrounding one of the columns was that there is a small hole in it that you put your thumb into then twist your arm around 360 degrees in a clockwise direction whilst making a wish. If your thumb is damp afterwards then it means your wish will come true. The sheer effort of it made me forget entirely about wishing so I had to go back, with Mustafa pushing hoardes of American tour groups out of the way, and do it all again. All well and good, until I told Joel what I had wished, then Mustafa told me it now wouldnt come true, so.....an increasingly frustrated Mustafa had to prise the snap happy Japanese tour group out of the way so i could make a third attempt at this! On ending our
sojourn with Mustafa we headed over to the Blue Mosque which we both agreed was a damn site more impressive from the outside. Bumping into the Carrinos on the Street (and pretending to rob their Lonely Planet- sorry Justin, I just couldnt resist) we arranged to meet up with them in the evening to go to the Turkish baths. With a recommendation from our friend Hakan, we went along to a Turkish barbers, where we both got new do's and Joel got a shave witha cutthroat razor. It may not sound like much of a thing to take pleasure from, especially as I despise having my hair cut, but this was something else. Never in my young years have I seen someone take such precision in cutting hair, especially not a barber. After the cut was over, he spent about ten minutes runnig his hands through my hair to make sure it was all the right length and then, spotting ONE stray heir, snipped it off. Following this he got out his lighter and took it to my ears. I'll be honest here I was scared and my fear evidently pleased the barber as he laughed uncontrolably as he singed
the hair from my ears.
Feeling remarkably grand after the trim, we met up with Justin and headed off to the baths, though not really knowing what to expect. The baths we go to is one which is listed on the 1000 things to see before you die, so we reassure ourselves that theres now only 999 other things to do! After negotiating exactly what we require we get changed and head inside, only to receive smirking looks for the fact that we wore shorts whereas all the other men were...well....not wearing shorts. We are then escorted into the steam room to await our massage, and after a few minutes I get called up by a very, very large gentleman who then escorts me to the big marble slab in the centre and tells me to lie on my back. So far so good. After this he begins to pull, push, tuck and squeeze me in the most painful manner i which i have been pulled, pushed, tucked and squeezed. At one point I actually winced in pain and he laughed. Not your ordinary laugh mind, the sort of laugh that implied "Haha, yeah you like that dont you,
tourist bitch!" If I had been handled in this manner in the UK it could only happen on a Saturday night outside the club. I'm not one for scrapping though, which is probably why I lay there and took it like a tourist bitch, my mind only occaisionally drifting away from the pain to realise that I was not only getting practically beaten up by a Turk, and paid for the privelege, but that I was also face down in the sweat of every other man who had been there that day. By the end I was ready to go back to the baths in Hungary. Both Joel and Justin's masseur was possibly the father of the rest of them though, so they got away with light treatment as he was afraid of incurring his angina again. By the end of the manhandling it was time for relaxation the proper way, so afterwards Justin, Joel and myself went to the pub, to be met by Chris and a couple of other from the Hostel.
The following day Joel and I put on our bargain hunter hats and headed to the Grand Bazaar to do some hardcore haggling. For the most part it all went very smoothly, Joel even managing to get over 50% knocked off one of his purchases, but there was one occaision that didnt quite come off and that was when, on trying to buy a new, leather-bound, journal I was told it was 150 lira. This being way, way out of my budget I said it was too expensive and went to leave, only to then be asked how much I would pay for it. I explained that I was looking for something around the 15 lira mark and, due to the mix up in language, he kicked me out believing that I was looking for a massive reduction! A truly impressive place due to its size, it really impressed us both, but after a couple of hours of wandering around it got extremely repetative and by the millionth time we heard "Special price just for you my friend!" we decided to leave.
Having booked ourselves into a tour group that left the next day, we toasted to Istanbul and the first leg of our journey that evening, then packed up all our stuff in readiness to see the rest of Turkey. First stop Ephesus!
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