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Published: August 6th 2013
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It was sad to be leaving the ship but the last leg for the group tour was about to commence. We had 4 days to experience what Istanbul had to offer!
We stayed on the ship as long as we could, we had docked at 7am and expulsion from the ship commenced at 8am. Too early for us we say so decided to stay a little longer and take advantage of the enduring hospitality. We had a final coffee on the aft deck, Steve looked over the side from time to time just to check what the flow off the ship was. Naaa not waiting in that line so sit down and relax. A little later we decided that we had better make a move, we were the last to leave and 4 lonely bags sat in the terminal waiting to be collected. No longer looked after we were on our own, a porter took us to the taksi rank (taxi) oh good this is going to be fun. You need 2 taksi we were told, oh we said we will take the 1 that has just driven in, no, no, no, you have to pay 80 Euro for that
1 or we can send you in 2 taksi's for 20 Euro each. Something's going on here, Jane says they are scamming us - what choice did we have but to take the 2 taksi, all aboard we were off! We raced through the streets in convoy, traffic everywhere, it soon became apparent that neither driver knew where they were taking us despite having the address written down. After a few stops to ask people along the way Jane & Simons' driver came running back to our car to get the hotel phone number. I had all the details on the iPad so gingerly handed it over thinking I might never see it again as he jumped into his car with it. Around a few skinny streets we arrived, iPad handed back phew!
Our hotel welcomed us, they had one room ready but as yet the other was still to be vacated. The hotel was Ottoman style and had big comfortable rooms, it was good to spread out. After refreshments we headed out to check out where we were.
We needed money & Turkish Lira seemed to be the best choice, it saved converting it to Euro then
NZ$ so off to find a money machine. As we were walking up the road we came upon a friendly Turk or should I say he spotted the new tourists on the block and decided we could be his new best friend and customer. After chatting for a bit we realised we couldn't get rid of him, he was very persistent but finally we shook him off but unfortunately not for the rest of the trip! The location of our hotel was fantastic only a couple of minutes to the Blue Mosque, the square, Hagia Sophia, and a little further to the Spice markets & Grand Bazaar - perfect! As we were walking through the square we saw the Hop on Hop off bus not a bad place to start we thought to get orientated & they took Euros so off we went to do a city tour.
One of our stops was Taksim Square hard to believe that only a few weeks ago there were protests and riots, no evidence of this now. However, we did see the Polis (police) and they were armed with machine guns and quite casual in their demeanour. Health & Safety, not sure
Galata Bridge
Fishing from Galata how big they are on this but as we were stopped at the lights and watched a truck unload a large amount of plywood sheets, no fork hoist here, just used the tip truck and dumped it on the road - unbelievable!
Istanbul is a very beautiful and buzzy city, totally not what we were expecting, very clean and we felt very safe. The bus tour took us across the Galata bridge where hundreds of fisherman were wasting their day away, don't think too many fish were being caught there. The Galata bridge links the Old city Of Istanbul with the new city. We also crossed another bridge (name forgotten) that linked Europe with Asia, that was something that we all didn't know about. Istanbul is the only city that crosses 2 continents.
Well after a massive amount of information installed we were back to the start of our journey. We quickly found a money machine, headed back to the hotel for a refreshment stop and then off to find somewhere for lunch.
We found a road 2 mins walk away from the hotel that was full of little bars and eateries. We were welcomed into a
bar by a lovely Turkish man who liked to chat and he also gave us a great deal on wine which is very expensive here. Lunch was a laugh, you order your food from one side of the street & drinks from the other as some of the food cafes don't sell alcohol. We enjoyed our meal chatted to some of the locals and promised to come back for a Turkish water pipe. Back to the hotel for a rest, this hot weather really wears you out. Keeping in step with our last few weeks’ tradition, drinks were had in Simon & Jane's room before heading off to dinner.
That evening the streets around the surrounding area were very busy. We were to find out that this was Ramadan and they all come to the square outside the Blue Mosque to have a picnic and chat with their friends after sun down and stay until about 3.30am. We headed to the square around 11.30pm and could not believe the thousands upon thousands of people there. I am not exaggerating when I express how many people were there, and probably in excess of 500,000, it was a warm friendly atmosphere,
no alcohol or music just families together having a good time young and old. It was great to be able to experience this, really amazing.
Next day Sunday we were off to the Spice Markets, the smells the colours it was all exciting. We even bought a little hand sewing machine which is apparently good for hems, seams etc, we will see. Then after a considerable amount of walking around we headed off to the Galata Bridge. It is traditional to eat fish sandwiches on the Galata. We duly obliged, Janet & I had the fish sandwich and were introduced to apple tea. Really very nice sitting and watching the world go by. Simon & Jane had gone back to the hotel early, they lunched on a rooftop restaurant, the views were so amazing they booked us all in for dinner.
Sunday late afternoon a visit to the Blue Mosque this architecture is quite wonderful. As we were leaving our friend from the first day found us, not by luck we thought, we think he had been watching for us, it's not like we don't stand out in the crowd. This time it was harder to
shake him off, everywhere we went he came to, eventually without appearing to be too rude we were able to move on. Dinner at the rooftop restaurant didn't disappoint the views were stunning! A quick walk around the square before heading off to bed.
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