Istanbul

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Yet another overnight bus in two days was draining.  Istanbul’s bus station was a hectic nightmare.  We were not to catch a free shuttle in to Sultanhamet but after close to an hour of waiting we decided to catch the train and then a tram.  It was peak hour traffic so this was a nightmare.  The train was full, Evrim and I were the only females in our carriage and the next.  We got our fare share of stares. The tricky part was trying to get on a tram this took over half an hour.   We were all tired when we finally made it to the tourist strip.  Erin was getting frustrated with the locals hassling us, she snapped and then stayed out of any negotiations. We finally found a place that was decent priced with decent dorm rooms, not dark, cold underground dungeons with thirty beds.

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After settling into our hostel we walked down to the Grand Bazaar.  We spent an hour or so looking at all the different things for sale.  We don’t know how many times we were asked if we wanted to buy carpets.  We made our way out of the bazaar and bought a kebab on one of the many little streets. John had had enough of the business and pestering so went back to the hostel and the rest of us made our way through Istanbul’s busy streets to the Spice Market. The Spice Market has a much more local feel as well as much local prizes.  All the spices had a glorious smell and colour.  There was also fresh tea and coffee along with lots of Turkish sweets including Erin’s favourite Turkish Delights. The three of us bought a couple hundred grams for a couple of dollars.  Once we had all had enough of the crowdedness we walked to the harbour where we found a great and cheap coffee place.

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The next day we all rose at about the same time, we cleaned up and made it upstairs for breakfast.  This hostel probably had the worst breakfast, it was really small and only one cup of coffee.  After breakfast we all went out for a walk down to the water and over the bridge to the Asian side.  We wanted to go to Taksim, it took about an hour and a half to get there and rained the whole time. We finally made it to the shopping strip.  We looked around, Erin wanted to buy some boots but everything was too expensive.  You really have to stay in the markets to get the bargains. In the afternoon we split up, Evrim and Stephen went shopping and John and Erin went to the Aya Sofya.  The construction of the Aya Sofya started in 532 AD, it was meant to be the grandest church in the world. Then in 1453 the church was captured by the Ottomans and converted into a mosque. It has been declared a museum since 1930, and Christian mosaics have been uncovered.  That night there was a big football match on between Istanbul and the Netherlands (I think) so we went upstairs to watch, we were given a Hookah (traditional water pipe for smoking tobacco, usually apple flavoured).  Stephen and Erin had a go, it was really smooth and nothing like smoking a cigarette.

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Thursday we all visited the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.  We spent a few hours there but after a while it started to mould all together and we lost interest.  So we went back to our newfound coffee place and each had a cup of yummy cappuccino. It was Evrim and Stephens last day so that night we all went to our usual eating strip and had some dinner.  Andrew and Megan (our new dorm buddies) came along too so it was a nice group of us.  The waiter was quite funny but also a little annoying giving us too much attention.  The food was good and pretty cheap.  It was soon time to say our farewells.  It was pretty sad saying good-bye.

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The next was our last day, after checking out and storing our bag’s we walked over to the Blue Mosque.  The Blue Mosque was built to outdo it’s neighbour the Aya Sofya in both size and grandeur. But we think that Aya Sofia is a nicer building and still appears to be larger.  After this we had some lunch, walked a little bit around to buy a few things and then it was back to grab our bags to make our long way to the airport.