22-4-08
What a great city! I’m thoroughly impressed with Istanbul. It’s very chilled out and very clean.
Magan and I started the day wandering up to the Blue Mosque and Aya Sophya. They are very pretty and about 100 metres from our hostel. The Blue Mosque and Aya Sophya are opposite each other, with a beautiful garden teeming with tulips and a fountain, connecting them. Here we decided to indulge in a Magnum Ego, my favourite, only to find out that it was no the usual caramel, but pistachio flavoured! It was very interesting, but nice.
In the afternoon we headed up to the Grand Bazaar. This was also not what I expected. It was more like a cross between a shopping centre and a clean bazaar. Very laid back and enjoyable after the chaos of Egypt. The Grand Bazaar is massive, and there always seems to be something a little different around each corner, until you have been there for a while, and see everyone seems to be selling the same thing.
We then headed to the Bospherious to check out the water. It was very dark looking, and didn’t smell the best, so our visit
was short lived, and it was back to the hostel to chill out and plan our next day’s activities.
That night we hung out with some Aussies who were staying at the hostel. That night was pretty interesting. Pretty much all of the people staying in hostels in our street where Aussies on their way to Gallipoli. It was much like being out in Australia in a different setting, even down to the music. All the Aussie pub classics came out. This was a fun night, and the hostel staff where we were staying were great.
23-4-08
Today after not really having a proper shower, with hot waster in days, Megan and I decided to have a Turkish Bath.
This was great and relaxing, except when I was getting brutalised by my masseuse. I had a few bruises after that one.
We then headed back to the Grand Bazaar for Megan to get the last of her shopping done, and then back to the hostel and had dinner across the road, which was awesome.
The rest of the night was spent out the front of the hostel drinking in the bar and waiting for
the boys to arrive. They finally got in, after being delayed by a stop at the cop shop, at about 10pm and we all stayed out for some drinks.
Dinner!Note on the right, it is still on fire.
Turkey's Flag
Map of Turkey