All that said, the old city of Sultanahmet, the oldest part of Istanbul dating back to the days of Constantinople, is awash with carpet sellers who are dying to be your friend. I wasted a precious 2 hours inside 2 stores being fed a liquor like ouzo, as they tried in vain to sell me metre square silk carpets that at 3,000 Euro I didn't need nor could afford. There were dozens of attempts to drag me into others. The befriending on the street never ceased, and it got tiresome real quick - since I am only rude to you, the one lesson I learned was being nice doesn't help. These guys are completely unstoppable... But I didn't buy a carpet nor a ton of jewels, and as it turns out my credit card was stopped - or so I thought - at a museum ticket counter, calling PCBank they said their computers were down for a few hours... So call back later for help!
Blue Mosque:
I have come up with a theory for these chatty instant friends: they are like realtors... They ask where you come from and what you do, to weed out if you can afford it. God forbid they should waste their time.
Several things on this trip didn't work out exactly. The Haggia Sophia mosque, I had hoped to see, but on this day of the week, not at all. However I did get into the Blue Mosque - these two things dominate the Istanbul skyline, and the bridge linking Europe to the Arab world was there in the distance too. A few more miles on the other side of that bridge and you have Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Bulgaria and Greece are closer to this side. Interesting neighbours...
A man approached me Sunday night, said he was a businessman from the Ukraine and asked if I wanted to go to a belly dancing bar in new Istanbul... I said no of course, but I am assuming it is a scam.
Grand Bazaar truly is both!
Cats and dogs are welcome here ! Ferrel cats abound on this warm sea port on the Med. they feed them to ward off rats and things, and these are nicest best fed cats I have seen living wild anywhere. Same for the dogs. I think you can easily judge a place by how they treat animals and the old, and so here, I give high marks.
The weather is just recovering, it is nice and warm during the day, but it was cold at night. They had had the same cold spell as the rest of Europe got, not as severe, but still odd for the time of year. Nowhere near as bad as Amsterdam though, thank goodness and in a few hours, I am flying overnight through Cairo to Bangkok. Where excess cold will no longer be a problem! However check in was crazy... Everyone on that flight going with way too much baggage, at least one guy was riding them hard about it all, but they allow them to re-pack bags at the gate, which makes little sense... It took forever ! Ok, I am now sitting at Popeye's chicken counter with an orange juice waiting for the flight..... It's time to leave Istanbul.
Now I am at Cairo airport for the connection and on the lcd tv in the waiting room there's a tv show about a plane crash - it's Mayday! On Discovery Channel.... I hope this isn't an omen...
A 777 is kept aloft by two enormous engines, but only two?
- BlogPressed from my iPad. Click on pictures for larger version and gallery. Copyright 2012 TinyFrontalLobeOnVacation Inc.
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