Advertisement
Day 1 Continued...
After a relaxing time in the Vancouver airport we boarded our plane for Frankfurt. The flight went by fairly quickly as far as 10 hour flights go. We were on a fairly new plane and they did serve good food with real cutlery; that's right people, real forks and knives.
In Frankfurt we had a short stopover where I was able to admire the 625 euro pens, 925 euro sun glasses, 9000 euro watches and the 16000 euro cell phones. How chic would I be if I owned one of each of those. Also; for those that were wondering, there were no more typical Corey moments on this day.
After a short 2.5 hour flight from Frankfurt we finally arrived at Istanbul. It was a nice cab ride to our hostel which is only a couple of blocks away from the Maramara sea. Since this is our first hostelling experience we decided on a private room with a shared bathroom before we adventure out into the doormitory style rooms. Our room can only be described as quaint; it is approximately 10 ft by 12 ft with two twin beds in it. The air conditioning does
work and the beds are far more comfortable then the airplane chairs; mind you after 28 hours of planes and airports a horizontal concrete slab would be preferable. The bathrooms leave a little bit to be desired but they are somewhat clean and they do have toilet bowls (which may or may not tip over on you if you lean too far in one direction) which is better than a trough that one needs to squat over. (Word of warning for female travellers, be prepared to bring your own toilet paper and work on strengthening your quad muscles because their aren't too many western style bathrooms to be found.) For 300 TL for five nights, it is still a good deal. For those wondering, 1 TL=$0.59 CDN
After our arrival we took to the street to explore. After a fairly lengthy uphill walk, one we will have to do every day, we found the main club and shopping street. We wondered for a bit and it didn't take us long to realize that pedestrians definitely do not have the right of way. The traffic is rediculous, keeping in mind that this is coming from a person who has been
to Jeonju, South Korea. The streets are two way but would be the width of your typical alley way in Canada and if you are lucky you get the cerimonial "Get the f*** out of the way" honk before they run you over.
When we reached this street we stopped to have a bite to eat but not before we quickly realized how persistant Istanbulites are. Each one of them is accosting you trying to get you into their restaurant or to buy their perfume. I don't know how many times I heard the opening line; "Do you know why I like Canadians, because they spend their money" I'm sorry, but if you want to impress me and have me actually buy something you are going to have to start out with something other then "come on, you want to spend your money!" For someone who has also been to Tijuana, Mexico I would say that the Turkish are far more in your face.
After stopping to have the best baklava I have ever tasted, Terri and I went for a beer but not before she was essentially molested to go into this club and that club. Me,
I wasn't bothered which is the opposite with the street vendors who bothered me and left Terri alone. The beer was good and the people watching even better.
We finished up our beers and decided it was time to pack it in but not before we had a lengthy discussion about what direction we were headed and where we needed to go. Believe it or not; it was this guy, this directionally challenged individual who got his bearings before the seasoned traveller who is Momma Bear. She is never going to live that down! Until next time...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 13; qc: 54; dbt: 0.0479s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
IveBeenThere
Cindy
so far so good
hi Terri & Corey have just started to read your blog - love it - you may just have my kind of sense of humour!! anyway I am planning a trip to Turkey in Sept so am going to hound you with comments and questions as I read your blog. you can choose to ignore me or help me out, at least you know someone is reading your blog. Cindy - from Brisbane Australia (currently living in Morocco)