Blogs from Marmara, Turkey, Middle East - page 186

We finally arrived in Istanbul after a 24 hour whirlwind tour of the SFO, JFK, and Heathrow airports. Apparently our bags had a different itinerary since they arrived several days later. Thank you American Airlines for lightening our load! It's a good thing we didn't need water filters and mosquito nets to enjoy Istanbul. In the only city that spans two continents, the collusion of cultures ıs everywhere: headscarves and Converse, tea houses playing hip hop, mosques hosting book fairs. The train from the airport took us through run-down neighborhoods wıth crumbling walls and kids throwing stones at the train. But those same high-rise apartment buildings had clusters of white sattelite dishes sprouting like mushrooms from every balcony and stable rooftop. We spent our two and a half days in Istanbul exploring everything within walking distance, ... read more

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 ... read more

Hey hey Istanbul is fantastic. Incredible, such a vibrance and energy about it. It has so much flavor. So the 21 hour train ride from Bucharest to Istanbul was fantastic. Adam and I ended up getting our very own sleeper compartment. I love travelling by train, something about hte melodic noise of the wheels on the tracks. The only problem is that I had zero food because the supermarket in Romania did not take my card. So yesterday I overindulged a bit by having 4 donner kebabs and 10 pieces of Baklava. Good lord the baklava is to die for, they everything. The best was the chocolate pistachio. Went for a shave yesterday, quite an experience. First off you sit down in one of those barber chairs, they drape you with towels. Then heat up some ... read more

We arrıved ın Plovdıv surprısıngly at a reasonable hour of the day and set about tryıng to fınd a hostel whıch would have a room for us and our bıkes. Well I say we were tryıng to fınd, really I was just followıng Robın as I have learnt to trust hıs fantastıc sense of dırectıon. There would be no way I could have found my way to Turkey without hım. We had a small map of Plovdıv centre on the back of our Bulgarian road map and some addresses scrıbbled down from the ınternet. We had the address for Hotel Co-op south of the statıon whıch was the only one star place we could fınd onlıne. Pausıng to get our bearıngs on the cycle ınto town a gırl comes runnıng over offerıng to help us and ... read more

I am here for 1 week already. It't time for my first trip outside the city. So we got together: about 50 people - to go to visit TROY..and other places related to Turkish history. The trip from Eskisehir to Canakkale (the starting poing of our 3-days history lesson) is 8 hours. Once there..you can smell the perfume of the sea. We crossed the Dardanelles with a ship. The view was absolutely breathtaking. The water was dark green and the wind was caressing our smiling faces. How can I describe that Dardanelles crossing-over trip?! Great! Absolutely beautiful! And since our trip's purpose was to discover the history of that part of Turkey...soon we started to see a huge Turkish flag on the hill. Soon we reached Gallipoli, the starting point. That place is now a ... read more