So this will be a fairly short posting, since I'm only here for 3 nights, but here goes. So I am in Istanbul, which is the 6th largest city in the world (which I didn't know) and is a very unique cultural melting pot. It's a connecting point between Europe and Asia, and was once the centre of a very large empire, the Ottoman Empire, so the city is super rich in history and culture. Unfortunately, I have such a limited time here, which is quite sucky since there is probably at least a month's worth of things to explore in the country, with a week in Istanbul required at a minimum too. The impression of these 3 days here, is WOW WOW WOW! The sights, the sounds (being woken up at 6:00 am and 8:00 am by incredible Mosque call to prayer), and of course the smell (Turkish food and spices, mmmmmm), make Istanbul one of the most amazing places I've yet to visit. I can only hope to return here for at least another 4 or 5 days to really embrace more of this amazing city. But anyways, here goes.
So after arriving from Romania, and getting dropped off at the hostel, I got all checked in, and managed to find Alex and Becky in the hostel common area, after meeting a few nice people in my room, including a fun Polish couple who were handing out welcome shots of vodka to anyone who came in. Alex had just returned from an epic 16 hour day tour, but she was still keen to head out to find some food. So the three of us wandered out to sort out a place to sit down and enjoy some of Turkey's delicious food. We didn't wander too far, and stopped to look at one menu, when the obligatory touting began within 30 seconds of glancing at the menu. The Turks are very very pushy and are extremely flirty with any woman they can find...no matter what the looks are ha ha. So of course we got sucked in to the first restaurant we looked at the menu, but it turned out to be a very good and tasty place.
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| Kebab, so good! |
After dinner, I was fairly exhausted, and not really up for a whole lot, so we just wandered back to the hostel, where we just chilled out in the common room a bit more, smoked some Shisha pipe, and met a few new people.
The next day, I slept in as per usual, and managed to find the girls to go for a wander down to check out the Grand Bazaar and Blue Mosque. The hostel location is really great, nice and close to everything, and super cheap.
Highly recommend you check out the Harmony Hostel if you're ever in Istanbul :) http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Istanbul-Harmony-Hostel/Istanbul/35927
So we went for a our wander down to the Grand Bazaar, which is an incredible shopping experience, with the obligatory aggressive Turkish salesmen everywhere....and since I was walking around with 3 girls, they all kept stopping to ask me what my secret was and telling me how lucky of a guy I was ha ha. So we wandered around there looking for some Turkish restaurant that Justin, the American dude from our hostel told us about, but the place is an absolute maze and we weren't able to find it, so we settled in at some other restaurant, where the server flirted non stop with the girls and kept trying to get their phone numbers, etc. Oh these Turkish guys are hilarious. So after our tasty meal there, we wandered back through the Bazaar, and if I was heading back to Canada I probably would have bought a ton of things for decorating a place, as there's so many amazing things including lamps, dishes, knives, etc. So cool. So after wandering there we then made our towards the Blue Mosque.
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| Entrance to the Grand Bazaar |
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| Exploring the Bazaar |
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| Turkish Street life |
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| Smoking hot deal on this handbag |
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| Mo is creeping in the Bazaar |
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| Soon, I will be able to rock the pirate look |
Of course, we happened to wander by a tea and shisha stop, and were intrigued by it enough that we stopped in there for some warmth and some smoke. After hanging out there for so long because of the amazing shisha and tea and coffee, we wandered down to the Blue Mosque for the viewing period, which we knew was from 5:15 until 6 pm....and wow, what an amazing structure....so incredibly beautiful.
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| Stopping in the tea shop....great place |
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| Love that Turkish coffee! |
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| and Shisha :) |
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| Caught her in the self photograph |
Here's some pics.
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| Approaching the Blue Mosque |
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| Ominous presence |
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| Inside the Mosque |
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| Amazing infrastructure |
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| Intricate roof design |
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| the Mosque courtyard |
After wandering around there, we made our way back towards the hostel but had to stop by Mr. Delicious's Turkish Treat shop. Becky and Alex and Jade had met this chubby Turkish man in his sweet shop a day earlier, and had told me all about him. He was a super jolly fellow, and would offer free treats and coffee and tea, and told them that his name was Mr. Delicious....so they talked about him so often, and I had to meet him. I was also jealous of his sweet nickname, and wanted one for myself. I thought I could be Mr. Promiscuous ha ha, so we stopped by his shop, and he was so awesome. Such a friendly dude, and the man made some amazing treats. I don't eat dessert very often, but because he was such a great guy, I decided to support his business and make some purchases there. We ended up getting a cool photo with the man in his shop as well, so good.
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| Such a lovely man and his candy is great too! |
After the Mr. Delicious hang out we arrived back at the hostel where I was able to track down Kristy from Vancouver, who I had met in Croatia a few weeks earlier, and had told to come stay at the same hostel. We caught up a bit, and then wandered down to grab a bite to eat at a nice rooftop terrace a few blocks away from the hostel. The food wasn't quite as good at this place as the previous day's place, but it was a cool chill place to hang out. It was a bit cold, and they had so many heaters going that they eventually blew a fuse, and had to take away most of the heaters to get power running again, so that they could play some terrible Eurotrash music! My favourite song that they played had these amazing lyrics; "you are sexy sexy girl, so sexy girl" and that was basically the chorus for about 3 minutes...yeah super hip. So eventually we realized it was already almost 1 am so just wandered back to the hostel, and that was about it for the night.
The next day was another sleep in day, and then Kristy, Jade, and I decided to wander down and check out the Hagia Sophia Museum, but first stopped for the obligatory lunch at a kebab shop, which was so delicious again...damn I love the Turkish food! After having some eats there, we stopped for some fresh orange juice and then some coffee, where the Turkish men in the coffee shop hit on the ladies non stop again ha ha....oh to be with the girls and the things they go through here! After that we finally made our way over to Hagia, which is a very interesting structure. It was originally built as a Orthodox church, but then was converted to a Mosque, so it's probably one of the very few if only Mosque in the world where you will find Orthodox Christian paintings and murals inside. Very cool building, and absolutely amazing architecture.
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| Istanbul is filled with mosques everywhere! |
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| Stairway to Heaven? |
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| The chicken and cube make an appearance! |
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| From the second floor, where the Empress used to watch sermons from |
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| A Christian fresco in a Mosque...interesting |
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| The Sultan with his bad ass sack of gold to make it rain! |
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| hmm..maybe the foundation isn't so secure anymore? |
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| The Courtyard |
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| The Blue Mosque by day |
After hanging out there for awhile, we decided to make our way down to the Spice Market, where the smells and sights are so incredible. We wandered around there, finding cheap kebabs, amazing spices from all over the world, a few vendors selling leeches for medicinal purposes, and so many other various knick knacks. After wandering around there, we decided to head over to under the bridge to find a restaurant that serves fish burgers.
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| Fishing life away |
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| The New Mosque |
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| more Istanbul street life |
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| Spices |
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| Leeches! |
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| More spices |
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| and again more spice...love the textures and colours :) |
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| Life in the Spice Market |
Everyone I've talked to that has visited Istanbul, raves about these fishburgers, so I figured I may as well give it a try. So the group of us wandered around to find a restaurant, being welcomed inside by several touters along the way. Kristy had wanted some calimari, and one of the touters had told us that they would give us cheap beer prices, 5 Lira fish sandwiches, and 12 Lira calimari, plus free coffee and tea, so we agreed to be sat in the restaurant.
Well, wow what a mistake that turned out to be. The guy who was the manager or owner ended up being a total dickhead to us. He was getting upset about us taking our time to order, and when we finally had our order and it was time for the bill, he decided to try and charge us more than we were supposed to be. He charged us for the 2 coffees that were supposed to be free, and tried to charge us 15 for the calamari, and then decided to put some "service tax" on the bill. Justin, the American, had read that restaurants will try and sneak that on the bill sometimes, even though they aren't supposed to, so we started to make a bit of a protest over the bill.....eventually the guy just snapped and started yelling at us that people in Turkey dont' make 1 million Lira a year like we do in America (the equivalent of over $500,000 US!!!) and that we shouldn't be complaining over 7 extra lira on our bill (3$)...he was such a pompous jackass, and being such a dink about things.....we tried to remain calm with him, but he couldn't keep his composure and made a huge scene in the restaurant. After we paid the bill, he was telling us to "get the fuck out of my restaurant, and never come back!" ha ha ha...what a dickhead!!
So if you're ever in Istanbul, never ever ever visit a restaurant called Star Cafe and Bar, which is under the bridge by the New Mosque.
So after that fiasco, we were walking away down the bridge and others were trying to get us in their restaurant, so for curiosity's sake, I started asking what beer prices were and if there was a service charge. The first guy I stopped to talk to, said no of course there's no service charge, and the beers were cheaper there! I suddenly noticed that one of the guys working at the Star Cafe had followed me, and started getting agitated in Turkish with the other guy I was talking to, and so the new guy asked if I was playing them? I said no, you guys played us, have a goodnight! So we walked back towards the hostel, but of course made the obligatory stop at Mr. Delicious's shop, hung out there for awhile, then just wandered back to the hostel for the night and hung out there. I have to fly out at 1:30 pm tomorrow, so it will be an early morning to catch the transit to get to the airport, so I'm off.
Will be having fun in the sun in Bali soon :)
Ciao,
Reilly
