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Published: December 2nd 2013
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We travelled to Istanbul. The flight with TurkishAir. Is the first flight of note this trip. We were welcomed aboard with Turkish Delight. We had fabulous meals and the staff was extremely nice. It's the most luxurious flight we've taken. We arrived to night fall so our ride to the hotel didn't give us a sense of the city at all. We met our group leader on arrival and then there was a group meeting before we all went out for supper. There are 8 of us, the guide and the driver. It makes a small and easy company, and doesn't feel like we are a hoard of tourists defending on a site. We are mostly Canadians with one Brit and one Aussie. All of us are quite sedate and intent on being very pleasant. The hotel agreed to keep our bags while we are on the tour so Jake and I went to repack everything into one bag for the tour to be day in the morning. Breakfast at seven was cheese, olives, buns and crunchy rolls of deep fried pastry wrapped around cheese. There is only very strong tea and tang to drink. There was also toast and cereal
but I think we might find that those offerings disappear once we are away from the big cities. We left the hotel, left bags in our mini bus and started our walking tour of Istanbul. We went by the Sophia, which is not open to the public on Mondays unfortunately, and the visited the blue mosque. Here, monuments and churches are on a grand scale with more open spaces inside than what I've seen in the rest of the cities I've visited. The ceramic work is amazing, and the minarets on all mosques really appeal to me. We walked to another mosque, the largest, and saw that the plan doesn't change a lot. Next was the grand market. I wasn't prepared. I didn't realize it was under a roof. I didn't realize how grand, grand could be. It was a feast for the eyes, with everything calling for you to take it home: rugs, jewelry, leather, carved wood boxes,lamps, good luck glass eyes winking everywhere. We did not have enough time. We moved on through winding streets down to the spice market. On the way, there were the tobacco sellers, here different grades of tobacco are piled in open bags
to be perused, weighed and purchased. Inside this market, covered by high roofs again, were spices. The scents were glorious. Spices are piles in pyramids on platters and in containers. Nuts, dried fruits, teas are laid out on rows. Turkish delight shops compete. Wandering through the crowds are the hot tea sellers, tea steaming from their trays of small vase shape d glasses with lumps of sugar on the side. Our guide brought us to one store where we could taste for free different samples of high and low quality Turkish delight. They tried to sell me saffron and aphrodisiacs, we all laughed. Salesmen here seem to have a much better sense of fun when tempting you to their wares, with jokes and off colour comments, but good temper when you pass them by rather than the sneers or empty eyes that I've seen up till now in other parts of Europe. Here too, I could have stayed for a long time. Onward to the dockside where we picked up fast food before jumping on the ferry to meet our driver in the Asian side of Istanbul. A city on two continents. The fast food for Jacob and I was
a shared mackerel sandwich from the boats tied up at dock. The hot grills on the decks cook the fish and the servers pass sandwiches to the shore. The ferry ride was 20 min and then we had a 5 hour ride to Ankara. Jake and I are are lucky that we enjoy reading in the car. We arrived at the hotel, to go out for supper almost immediately. The group is staying together. I think, I could get us a meal without our guides help but there is not much English and Turkish has nothing in common for me to grasp even little things. Our guide Ibo, is trying to teach us some Turkish. We went back to the hotel after good kebab and pizza to play cards with Jill, another of our group while a few went out to taste the night life. Then it was time for bed, the days are very full.
Good Night and Sweet Dreams
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