A great highlight of Istanbul is the cats that surround you. THere are multitudes of cats of the street, they are sometimes dirty and thin, but often they are just as healthy as can be, and you often see them being fed by kindly benefactors. They tend to live in groups in parks, around mosques and markets, and have their own little territories. Children greet them with delight, but often the kitty is not as delighted with the child. They have their own business to attend to, but will usually stop and give a nice pose for a photo. There is [View Full Entry]

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The last days in Istanbul were spent partially laid up with a twisted ankle which was interesting, seeing as still had miles to go before I went home! I twisted it in the harem in Topkapi palace, maybe overcome with the feelings of claustrophobia in the narrow marble corridors listening for the sounds of the sultan in his silver slippers... I could feel the souls of the trapped women, although it is true that many wanted to be there and were sold voluntarily by their parents with the wish that they could end up in the Topkapi Serail - the pinnacle [View Full Entry]

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Turkey 2008 was extremely cool. [View Full Entry]

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Tegnap megjöttünk a törökökhöz. Mindenki jofej es mindenki haver. Tudnak elni. A hostel a gitarboltok es hiradastechnikai alkatreszek szakuzleteinek paradicsomaban van. Zsombor kinezett maganak egy 5 fejes parabolaantennat. Tegnap megvolt az isztambuli kötelezö. (mecsetek, viztarozo, nagybazar). Zsombor lött egy sapkat maganak. Igor egy Prada börmokaszinnnal szemezett es hagyta arusitojat harmadarra alkudni, majd odebballt. Ma meglesz a topkapi szeraj meg talan a törökfürdö. Bar okosigor leforrazta magat a reggelinel es azota fenistilezik... 1 eleteröponttal kevesebb. -------------------------- Topkapit nem neztük meg, mer benaztunk. 2 szerencsepontot vesztettünk, amikor a kisköcsög anatoliai kipucolta a cipönket, es levett minket. Igor ugy döntött, nem lesz többet jofej, [View Full Entry]

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After a second day ın Istanbul I think I have covered most of the sights ın my part of town. See the pictures attached to see what I saw, but a very good day in summary. I visited a mosque, a church, a cıstern (for storing water), and saw a bıt more of the cıty. I am wrıtıng thıs at 1230 local tıme and I just returned to the hotel from the sectıon of town domınated by hostels and bars. Spent the evenıng watchıng Euro Cup 2008 Russıa vs. Sweden. wıth Russıa takıng the wın 2-0 and havıng a few (ok..many) [View Full Entry]

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So after about 15 hours of flight tıme and crossıng multiple tıme zones, I am here in Istanbul. Fascinatıng place so far, but I've only been here since yesterday afternoon. In that fırst afternoon and evening the followıng occured.... pretty sure a young Turkısh boy asked ıf I was gay and ıf I wanted to have sex wıth him (the answer was no of course on both counts), I was gıven the wrong directions to my hotel about 10 times (hotel 5 minute walk that way, and the man points in the totally wrong directıon), I learned that the whirlıng dervısh [View Full Entry]

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Istanbul is one of the world's most fascinating cities. It boasts a history reaching back thousands of years. Constantine declared it the capital of the eastern Roman Empire, calling Constantinople the "New Rome" in 330AD. For the next thousand years the city was the coveted gem in the crown of what came to be known as the Byzantine Empire. Many ancient remains of Byzantium can still be visited, the wonderful Aya Sofya remains one of the world's most beautiful buildings, as well as being one of the most interesting historically. Completed first in 537AD under Emporer Justinian, converted into a mosque [View Full Entry]

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İt starts off in a fairly typical way, "Hello, yes please!" Regardless of whether this induces any kind of reaction from the passer-by it is closely followed by "Where are you from?" The genius of this is its simplicity. While most westerners have no qualms about ignoring propositions of "yes please" they cannot help but respond to personal questions. So now they have you. An arm goes around your shoulder "Ah, Mel Gıbson!" You might mutter something about Mel Gibson being Australian or American but it,s too late, the ball is in motion. "Come with me my friend". You are then [View Full Entry]

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Antalya I woke up early to catch my 8:30 am flight. One of the interesting things is that Turkey generally does not wake up early. I missed out on breakfast because I was up too early. I left the hostel at about 6:45 am. I decided I was going to catch the bus to the airport and not get a taxi. On the way out of the old city (Kaleici), I had 3 dogs decide to be my escort to Hadrian's gate - the gate to the old city. I got a few snapshots in of Antalya, but I really did [View Full Entry]

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Well after being anquious all night to climb Mount Olympos today (2455 m), I got the bad news since I was the only one who wanted to do this that the price was double. So it went from 100 YTL to 200 YTL ($85 - $170 USD). Out of principal I decided not too and plus I wanted to make sure I got to Antalya in decent time since I was flying out back to Istanbul on an early morning flight. I had stayed at Turkman's Treehouses and some of the good tours were being offered by Kadir's Treehouses. I went [View Full Entry]

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