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Published: October 13th 2005
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First Site
Wow...the Blue Mosque, quite a site To start off, Turkey is amazing
besides a) people constantly baggering you to buy useless stuff. I mean do I look like I need a turkish rug? No. and b.) you have to be really carefull about anyone who is overly friendly and wants to help you. The other day we were trying to get into the blue mosque (the first picture) and this guy in a suit came up to us and started chatting with us telling us that the mosque was closed because it was prayer time and that maybe if we went to the side entrance he could get us in. It was amazing. We were the only "travelers" in the whole mosque. The women sit seperately from the men in the back with a big wall in front of them. They can't even see the head religious guy...The men sit or neal on little carpets in the front. Sidenote. the blue mosque is really famous because it has 6 spires mecca has 7..most mosques have like 1 or two. Well anyways after that amazing experience the "nice" guy in the suit took us to his carpet store where we had to uncomfortably say we didn't want
Donner Count 14
That's in 4 days...I Love Donner Kebab...1 turkish lira. 75cents carpets. AHH i just wish they could be nice for sheer hospitality.
The best parts of Turkey are the really nice people that you meet. The other night I went out with a few of the people from our hostel...It's Ramadan here (30 days of fasting) so at night there are these big celebrations. In Istanbul especially. There are tents set up all around teh blue mosque selling, Doner Kebab, Baklava, Corn, "turkish viagra," lamb intestine sandwhiches and many other interesting delicacies.
We decided to sit down and have some tea, and smoke some hookah. Both very Turkish things to do. We sat down next to this amazing Turkish family who ended up talking with for a really long time. Long story short they invited us to this tea house that their friends owned...We played some turkish card game and drank tea till 2am. It was such an amazing experience, and really fixed my view of the Turkish people that had been warped by the people who feand on the tourists.
Doner Kebab is perhaps my favorit food in the worl. It consists of bread or pita some chicken or lamb and tomato, letuce, and some spices.
WATERMELLONS
That's a whole lot of mellons...check out the weighing device he's using...OLD SCHOOL Simply put it's amazing. I'm thinking about stealing some turkish people and opening a chain of them in the states...They sell them for under a dollar hear and I have been living off them...Probably explains the sudden weight gain.
The Grand Bazzar was crazy. Over 4000 stores under one roof making it one of the largest malls in the world. Selling hookas jewlery, cheap coppies of lacoste and polos shirts, shoes, backgammon sets, rugs, and a lot of other stuff that I don't need. The spice bazzar was pretty cool though. So many colors and differnt smells, just walking through there was a experience for my senses. I'd never had turkish delight before but it's really good. Nuts covered in gelly and then covered in powdered sugar..Yummy.
I took a boat today and went over to the Asian side of the city. The city is divide by the Bosphorus into a European side and an Asian side. Only 3% of turkey is in Europe. So I guess I can now say that I'vee been to Asia. If you ask me it looked like Turkey.
Anyways not much else to report. We're joining a bus tour tomorrow for
Rug maker
It takes 1 1/12 years to make one carpet... a few days. Should be fun. It might be nice not to have to think about where we're goin how we're getting there and where we're staying fora few days
Other random things about Turkish Culture. 1 it is a muslim/secular country but 90 percent of Turks are muslim so five times a day no matter where you are you hear the loud call to prayer. Each Mosque has it's own guy that does the call to prayers so it's pretty amazing when you can hear 3 or 4 Mosques at once. 2) Store owners will invite you in to drink apple tea or turkish tea while you look at their rugs or fakes watches. It's a really cool part of the business culture. Also puts a sort of pressure on you to buy something but I resisted. Lloyd was not so lucky
Oh finally the exchange rate is $1 to 1.3 turkish lira. For the first 12 hours that we were here we thought it 1$ to 2 TL and we thought this place was the cheapest place we had ever been. Unfortunatley for us especially Lloyd after he spent 200Tl at the bazar we learned about
Cay (Chai)
These are BOMB...so refreshing. The muslims aren't big drinkers so they drink about 10 of these a day. the real exchange. Oh well
All in all this trip is still amazing and just keeps getting better. We are having a little trouble figuring out how to get to Egypt because the ferries don't run as often in October as they did during the summer but that's only a minor detail....We can either fly or maybe try and get to Israel somehow and then bus it.
Wish us luck
All the best
Adam
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griffin
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constantinople!
shut up, i am so excited for u, finally some place i have already been, i was going to say check out the kebabs and the hukas, but i already see you did that!i thought turkey was cool, but really what do i know... i reccomend the grand bizarre and the ancient city or ephasis ( spelling?) or also known as kushadosi... its a port city.