Advertisement
Published: December 25th 2006
Sunrise on the Bosphorus
Taking adcantage of being woken at 5am I decided to watch a sunrise over Istanbul. What a sight!Call me Marty, Mettin or Maumtez.
Yes, this is a bike riding trip through the beating heart of the Middle East to unknowns of Central Asia and onto the motherland of Russia.
I hope you enjoy reading, or are at best indifferent, to this oft poorly planned and somewhat misguided adventure of two semi litterate, fiendishly attractive middle twenties Aussie males, one of which has a penchant for absorbingly long sentances broken only by commas; and the occasional semi-colon.
But my trip started long before this bike ride.
It started in Istanbul on a warm day in the middle of september 2006. Istanbul grandest of citıes that bridges Europe and Asia in a malestrom of people (16 million, of which 15 million have a carpet store), ancient mosques, grand architecture and by gum, many many good watering holes.
With my good friend Serena we explored the city by foot, bus, and tram. Checking out the Blue Mosque, Haigha Sophia, Grand Bazare, Spice Bazare and sampling pounds and pounds of backlava.
I never tired of hearing Serena call from 20 metres ahead of me 'marty no more backlava, you said only two pounds per day'. Much
Anyone for Coffee?
The thick, dark concoction that is Turkish coffee. to mine and Serena's surprise I didnt end up turning into a piece of Backlava.
We also checked out the northern side of the city. Taksim, or new Istanbul, is bulging with upmarket clothing stores, international fastfood chains, and again a backlava and kebap store on every corner. Here there are also a swath of people selling another gastronomical delight- Istanbul mussles. Steamed to open them they are then stuffed with a spicy rice mixture, and served cold with a twist of lemon. Absolutely delicious! And at 25c each the price is just right.
It is from Istanbul that I have had my base over the last couple of months. In the five times I have now been there I have had a great many adventure and story to tell. Some of which are only marginably publishable on the internet.
A cryptic summary for you all;
360 degrees of flavour.
Raki delights and knife fights.
Random run-in's with old chums.
Vancouver related madness.
Cheap food alley.
Salty sardines and wine with Lionel Ritchie, and
stripy jumpers and teen beards.
All concocting to make Istanbul one of my favorite cities in the world. Second only to
Yes I am a tourist.
'No a little more to the left, no, no my left, ok, ok ready!' Canberra, and a little place called Cairo, oh and London. So really my third favorite city, no the second, or fourth favourite, or somewhere in the top two at least.
So dear reader, I hope you have enjoyed reading this entry as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
If not, well please forgive me.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.124s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 14; qc: 81; dbt: 0.0822s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jen A
non-member comment
Not bad, eh?
Hey it sounds like it's going to be an amazing adventure. Enjoy yourselves! And keep telling your story. I know I'll be checking in to see how it goes! (PS, if you want to see a reaction, say to the next baklava guy ' Say, I always thought baklava was Greek...'.. but then of course, tell him how much you love his baklava and that nothing else compares...)