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Published: February 24th 2007
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Hello all;
here is another page of our travels.
We are in wonderful Istanbul.
We arrived here the 22nd of February after a pleasant 3 hour flight from London with Turkish Airways, punctual and good service on board and we got into town with no hassle, the taxi driver dropped us to the front of Aya Sophya Mosque and we were straight away talked into following a man to get a hotel room, after several viewings we finally got the cheapest we could get and not really very nice, but we were thinking of keeping it cheap.
We were paying 70 Lira a night which is about 20 sterling pounds, breakfast included, we set of directly to visit the city and our first port of call was the blue mosque.
It is a wonderful building, gigantic in size and has a wonderful feel about it, we entered the masive praying hall to discover the miriad of tiles covering its walls and the elephant trunk columns (that is what they call them) it is a well lite and atmospheric space, we wondered how it must feel to be inside when thousands of men are praying in it?
We continued our walk just really following our instinct which brought us into the gardens of the Topkapi palace which is a pleasant walk down hill and bring you to get a wonderful view of the Bosphorous, from which we continued along the rail way from where once the Orient Express used to arrive into the city, to its station that connects the city to the ferries that brıng the locals to the diverse parts of the megapolıs. By this time it was rush hour and the traffic was chaotic and busy, people flocking onto the boats to get back home.
We found that here the prices of food where well bellow what one gets at the Sultanahmet part of town (which is where we're staying and where the Old city sites are), and one of the bad parts of our visit after now several days of being here, is that you cannot trust the prices in restaurants...You get told one thing and by the time you leave some how a whole lot of money has been added just by having a side dish not ordered of salad or chili sauce to your dish, which can suddenly make a
Cat Cıty
They are absolutely every where, they are cute, healthy, well fed and always askıng for attentıon meal that was supposed to cost 5 Euros is by that time 8 if not 10 and that is really not really nice, that is an aspect of the toursim culture that I feel they should learn...in the longer term I don't think it pays off, as some places we would have gone back to if not having been treateed in that way, but other than that, the people are very, very friendly.
Another striking point of this city, is that unlike other parts of the world one finds street animals under fed and mainly being of the canine kind, here the place is full of friendly and well fed cats!!! tehn the draw back of that is that when they get horny at night they do make a terrible raket that can keep one from falling asleep.
On day two we went to the north side of the city passing a bridge (Galata Brıdge), just besides the ferries, the bridge has wonderful looking fish restaurants and people trying to get you in there, telling you how you'll get ripped of on the next one, we walked along that area of town(Beyoglu) which seemed a totaly different world,
once one has climbed a steep street, you find yourself submerged by a mass of people, much more modern, shops as one finds in any high street of Europe, with the usual starbucks, burger joints and bodfy shops, etc. mixed in with restaurant after restaurant and caffes with wonderful looking cakes and icecreams.
the streets are buzzing with people, no traffic and just one single oldfashined style tram going along the street...the ambience is sublime! we went onto the side streets and found ourselfs in front of little churches, european embasies and we entered an nice Hammam, but apparentl not the best one, so we feel that we should go into another one to have a better experiece of what the real thing should be! Still it was nice to get out of the cold and relax in the warmth for a bit.
Speaking of tempreatures, when we arrived on the first day we though great it feels like spring and we wont be wearing our winter clothes, but overnight the weather changed and it is now freezing cold, we have had to buy gloves and today as we visited the Asian side of the city(Üsküdar) it was
actually slightly snowing! we Now hope when we wake tomorrow it might be white!
The (Beyoğlu) district, north side of the city, over the water from the Sultanahmet area, definately felt more European and cosmopolitan than the old city, we found less veiled women and more punkers and trendy looking men, by the way for us gay men it is heavenly to see so many wonderful looking and well dressed men, and surprisingly the city does have a gay scene, which for a Muslim country one would not expect!
The Asian side, visited on day 3, (today) is much ore muslim, but in no way as the media would want the west to believe does it at all feel threatening, at the contrary... everybody is soo friendly and if asking directions even if they dont speak any Englsih, which is rare, they will do their best to help.
The calling to prayers, has such a magnificence and people are so respectful, it just really feels beautiful, the mosques are really pretty and people have no problem with us visiting them.
We walked to the hıghest part of the cıty a park that has, or should have
View over the Bosphorus
from the Topkapi Palace ın good wheather wonderful vıews of the cıty, but ın spıte of the cold and slıght snow, ıt was stıll great to vosıt ıt and travel on the local busses to get there cheaply (Büyük Çamlıca park).
The caffes are full of people gathered convivially and there is a warmth and feeling of conviviality now lost in our cultures of northern Europe.
Sufi Islam is what is much practiced here, and I cant wait to go and see a devishes performance tomorrow.
We have now changed hotel as we have found one that is sooo atmospheric and nice that even if it break our budget, we feel it is worth being here, the rooms are beautifully decorated, the roofs full of stained glass lamps, but not the one in each room but about 30!!! the electricity bill must be huge!.
The walls are nicely painted and decorated with cloths, mats and old typical trukish clothing and it just is a jewel of a Hotel for which I do recomend it to anyone coming to Istanbul here is the web site
www.kybelehotel.com , it is close to the main tourist atractions and the prizes are fare for the quality compared to ost others that chrge the same thing but just are not as friendly and pitturesque as this one.
Pictures will be added soon.
I m off to have dinner now, happy reading
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Roel
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Dear Jean Marie & Micheal, Good to see to in Turkey and traveling again. Always a treat to read your stories. Just got back in Indonesia again. We stay in touch. All the best..