Blogs from Turkey, Middle East - page 389

After spending one last afternoon and night in Lisbon, Lindsay and I hesitantly said farewell to Portugal and hello to our summer trip. We left on an Alitalia flight through Milan and got into Istanbul at 1:00 in the morning. We don’t usually like to arrive in a new place when most normal people have already been sleeping for 2 hours, but it was a good deal, and we made arrangements with our hostel to get picked up by a driver, which made the whole thing a lot easier. We stayed at the Antique Hostel, which turned out to be a good choice because it was located in the main tourist district, right near some of the biggest sights in Istanbul including the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and the Topkapi palace. The room we stayed ... read more

Von Istanbul nach IzmırJoschka Bischoff Nach dem hektıschen Treıben von gestern, ıst das heute eın enstpannter Tag gewesen. Wenn man vom Aufstehen um 5.20 mal absıeht :) Gegen 6 fuhr ıch mıt eınem Vorortzug zum Hafen ın Yenıkapi. Dort gıong um 7 meın Schnellboot über das Marmara-Meer nach Badırne. Von dort hatte man dann Anschluss an den Express-Zug nach Izmır. Insgesamt braucht man so etwa acht Stunden von Istanbul nach Izmır. Naja. genaugenommen fuhr der Zug nur bıs kurz vor Izmır, da wegen Bauarbeıten der letzte kleıne Teıl der Strecke gesperrt ıst. Nach 5 Stunden ın eınem Zug, der nur aus 1.Klasse-Wagen bestand, mussten wır also ın eınen rostıgen Bus umsteıgen. Leıchter Komfort-;Verlust. Meın Hotel ıs nah am Bahnhof und, bıs auf das es eın vernünftıges Fenster und eınen kostenlosen Internet-PC hat... read more

Photos for now, text to follow... ... read more

Yesterday we were landed in Istanbul at a reasonable hour of 8 am. We took the shuttle bus into town (right near the Grand Bazaar). Dad, sisters, Matt and I walked over to the Blue Mosque. It was supposed to be about 1.5 miles, but it wasn't nearly that far. To go inside you need to remove your shoes and your legs and shoulders must be covered. We also thought that you had to wear a veil, but apparently it wasn't required as most of the women (tourists) were not wearing any head covering. Inside it is very simple. Just basically one big room with some lovely ceiling designs. Much more simple than all of the fancy churches we have seen. The skyline of Turkey is doted by mosques. We attempted to go to the ... read more

Siden enkelte har lurt... til tross for at det siste bildet på bloggen var av store mengder tungt bevæpnede georgiske militære, gikk resten av turen uten problemer. Etter noen dager som turister i Tbilisi, tok vi bussen tilbake til Istanbul. En vennlig grensevakt slapp oss inn i Tyrkia uten nytt visum, noe som gjorde oss litt spente på om kollegaene hans i Istanbul ville være tilsvarende vennlige og slippe oss ut... Monsterbussturen på 26 timer ble på mange måter en hurtigrepetisjon av landskapene vi syklet gjennom i mars. Deler av strekningen kjørte vi til og med på de samme veiene som vi hadde syklet. Da vi endelig var framme i Istanbul, lastet vi opp syklene og trillet langs den asiatiske bredden av Bosporus til vi fant et behagelig livlig lokalsentrum ved passasjerbåtkaia i Üsküdar. Vi parkerte ... read more