Istanbul: A first glance

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After nine hours of traveling we finally got to our hotel in Istanbul. We are staying at a hostel called "Second home", and the owners are making an effort to ensure the guest are comfortable even though the room is really small and toilets and showers are in the corridor. But we didn't come here to stay at the room, so that's ok.

When we got here we were starving, after breakfast we only had had apples, so our first goal was to find a restaurant to get something to eat. Fact 3. The addresses on the turkish street are quite confusing, especially without a proper map. This meant we didn't find the restaurant we had planned to go to, so we ended up taking the hostelowners suggestion and went to his friends restaurant. The food was actually good, at least my portion of turkish meatballs with a very garlicy yoghurt sauce was excellent, and the price was ok, so even if the place didn't look very fancy and the hostel owner was feeding guests to the place we were content as you can see from the picture.

With food in our stomachs we felt much more relaxed, so we set out to explore the neighbourhood. Hagia Sophia was nearby, so we went there, but it had apparently closed for the day. We continued to the blue Mosque where there was a lot more happening, and we actually were able to take off our shoes, put a blue scarf over Johannas hair and go into the Mosque. It was actually quite impressive with a huge dome and enormous pillars supporting the dome.

After visiting the Blue Mosque we got lost. We tried to take a short cut, but as we didn't have a proper map with us we got unsure of where we were, and eventually turned back, walked back to the Blue Mosque and followed the tram tracks back to our hostel. On the way we stocked up on water and beer, and at the hostel we decided to try out our roof terrace. Althought the roof terrace was quite shabby the view was very nice, and we sat there until it got too dark to write on the laptop. Now we are back at the room getting ready to go to bed, we are exhausted after all traveling.

Over and out, tomorrow you can look forward to Johannas writing!

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Comments

[Leena Mäki]

Matkapäiväkirja
Tutun oloista matkailua osoitteen hukkaamisine ja ruokapaikan etsimisineen. Mielekiinnolla odotan jatkoa, uutta olette jo nähneet ja kokeneet. Iloista ja turvallista reissaamista. T. L j J

[Tutkimusmatkailijat]

Moi - kommentit on tulleet perille kyllä. Kirjoitetaan englanniksi, koska meillä on myös ulkomaalaisia lukijoita :) hyvää kesänjatkoa sinne!