Blogs from Middle East - page 1030

Jamil. Hi it's me Jamil. We are in Alanya, which is a big city in Turkey. They have good food here, like doner kebab and cheeseburgers and the beach is nice because of the blue water. Yesterday we went to Side, a small town on the mediterranean where the beach is not as pretty as Alanya but they have a lot of ruins from the Roman period, about 2000 years ago. They had a hospital, a library and a place were the emperor would sit and the chrıstıans woud look at him and if he put his thumb down, the lions whould come out and eat the chrıstıans, but if he didn't, they would be safe to go home. So it's like if he's in a good mood they are safe and if he's in ... read more

As I write this Emma and I have only been in away from our Melbourne home for 6 days, but the amount we've seen makes it seem like we've been gone for much longer. It certainly didn't take me long to fall in love with Istanbul! We stayed in the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul, which is home to two famous mosques - the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sophya. We were in walking distance to these as well as the Sea of Marmara, the Grand Bazaar, the hippodrome where chariot races were once held, lots of Turkish Baths, eateries...basically enough that we spent four full days exploring the area. Some of the things that first struck me about Istanbul is that the locals like to keep everything clean. Someone was always washing a car, sweeping ... read more

Geo: 39.9439, 32.856We're staying at the InterIstanbul hotel where things are pretty utilitarian, not like the beautiful, interesting, high-end places that we've been up until now. The room has four beds, a desk and a closet. The view is of someone's laundry. I'm hoping the shower will get fixed today, but we do have a tub. The kids love the elevator which has no safety gate between you and the wall as it moves up and down. Also, there is a rack of postcards in the lobby that feature pictures of scantily-clad babes and ancient, well-endowed male fertility staues. Those are worth some giggles.The location here is very good. We are two blocks from the Grand Bazaar and maybe a quarter mile away from many of the other big major sites like the Blue Mosque.Yesterday we ... read more

Geo: 39.9439, 32.856Kate: Today we went to the Grand Bazaar. There is an indoor and an outdoor part of it. What I noticed was that there are a ton of gold objects, mostly gold jewelry in most of the stores in the inddor bazaar. When we ventured outside, Mom and I checked out a spirograph stand. A spirograph is a series of plastic disks that can be used to create drawings. We weren't able to get one at the stand at the time, but later we got one for 3YTL. For the whole day I noticed that there were an insane amount of stray cats and kittens roaming the streets of Istanbul. I wanted to pat and feed each and every one of them because they were so scrawny, but I couldn't pet them because of ... read more

hey everybody! its nadia writing faithfully at rougly 11 oclock pm. Its our third day here. The flights were a pain and i was totally jet lagged at cranky but its getting better. Yesterday we took a boat tour of the city. i fell madly in love with one of the guys on the boat. his name is Isaac and he so cute. i sat with him the whole way there. did i mention hes three years old and adorable? this russian kid would giggle for hours when imade funny faces. i eventually settled on doing cheer facials and he wouldnt stop hiccuping! The river that flows along Istanbul is extremely busy because its the only way to get to Russia by water without going through the north (icebergs!) Its really pretty. its colorful. all the ... read more