Blogs from Istanbul, Marmara, Turkey, Middle East - page 159

Hi All, The 10 hours connection in Istanbul seemed, at first, to be promising. However, after only 3 hours sleep at the former night, those 10 hours would appear to be difficult to pass. My first stop was the Hagia Sophia church that people say it is beautiful. It might be buetiful - but closed. 2nd stop was the Blue Mosque - beautiful and open. 3rd stop was the Topkapi palace- probably beautiful as well, as people say - but very long que for tickets so I quit this place and went down to the bay. By this time, the sky became cloudy and annoying drizzling rain has begun so I quit my 4th stop - to sail in the Bosphoros. I then went to visit the Dolmabache palace - and again, beautiful but closed. My ... read more

So I finally got off of the islands, which i don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, I was having so much fun but i think that it was time to leave. Not sure if my liver could take anymore abuse. So in other words, I loved Ios!!! Pretty much hungout on the beach for a few days and went to a few clubs at night. Hopped on a ferry to Naxos a few nights ago and then took an overnight ferry to Samos, From there I made a mad dash to get on the ferry to Kudurasi (I think thats how you spell it) where I spent a few days wondering the bazaars and eating kebaps. It was nice to relax on the beach and catch up on some sleep. Took ... read more

My journey started on August 20th, 2005. I came to Turkey. First time to a foregin country..and since I didn't dispose of so much money, I travelled by train. It was a 24 hours journey...and so it started... One sunny and extremely hot day in Istanbul, 9 am. The train stopped in a dusty train station called Sirkeci that looked like in the old English movies. First shock: the Turkish language..seemed like some stones hitting each other in people's mouths...men screaming, luggage grabbing, weight carrying. I was with another Romanian friend, Anca. We were supposed to be English teachers in a city called Eskisehir, somewhere away..about 6-7 hours by train. What we didn't know was that nobody was there to wait for us. We had to manage. Outside the train station we saw something amazing: ... read more

Four hours later than expected I arrived in Istanbul. It's very nice here, a real change also compare to Budapest. No more churches but only mosques with minaretts. And the imam is singing very early and many times a day to call for the prayer. Organisatıon oi an Iranian visa seems quite difficult, but I will try. ... read more

Thu 11th - We left Cyprus at 7am and flew to Turkey to stay in Istanbul for a few days. Our trip started a bit rocky when we arrived and needed to buy visas (you do it at the airport before passport control). However the only ATM on that side of the barrier wasn’t working, and we had no Turkish Lira. After being sent to numerous counters we finally met someone who could help. So he took us to the police and explained the situation, then escorted us to the other side, so we kinda entered Turkey once, got our cash, went back through passport control, then entered again, legally this time! By the time that happened though our hotel transfer had left us. Luckily Turkish people are so friendly and helpful. We met a rent-a-car ... read more