Istanbul

Elena

Sina

On Sunday 22nd August we rested a bit. We walked around Istanbul and had our first kebap in Turkey. Our group was joined by stylish Elena, a BEST member from Russia hosted by Sina in the same flat as we. In the evening we went to have some beers and party.  

Istanbul is a huge city and transport there is a horror. There are taxis everywhere and all drivers use their horns as a rule. For some it can sound like a symphony. It is also very crowded, lots of people everywhere. However, the city itself is very beautiful with mosques here and there. At the evening we went for wonderful view of whole city which only locals know. After that another adventure, so surprising, we managed to hitch-hike within the city. Tony said he'd done it many times but there were five of us and yet the driver took us all!

Grand Bazaar

On Monday we visited The Grand Bazaar, The Spice Bazaar and the oldest part of the city with Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. The Grand Bazaar was quite disappointing since it didn't look like a bazaar at all. It looked rather like a big shopping centre with turistic prices. But part of the city just few streets away was like bazaar we expected.

In the evening many people around had picnics. Because of Ramadan they don't eat during the day but after sunset a big feast starts. We sat there for a while and watched them before we went back home.

There we found out that two more people are staying there for night. We got to use the internet for a while and went to sleep.

Aya Sofia

We were supposed to leave Istanbul on Tuesday

but we had to stay one more day because of small problem with Tony's car. We went to Istanbul Modern, gallery of modern art. As it is with art, some of works amazed and some left us indifferent. One could see an effort to follow European art styles, Martin missed some local elements. Guess who was last one walking away from gallery :-) with guards. In the evening we joined some besties in a pub. We had a talk with people who'd already been to Iran and told us about their experiences there. So another evening and more people in the flat with us(9).

Tony

Besiktas