Len Russ In Europe - Instanbul

Well after leaving our beachside campsite of Kevalla we hit the highway and made our way the city of Instanbul. We arrived in the afternoon and due to the bus not being able to get to the alley where our hotel was, we lugged our packs through some light rain. Compared to the locals though, we still had it pretty sweet.

It was going to be awesome to be able to sleep in a bed after so long and have a hot shower as long as I wanted. After dumping my bags in my room I was sharing with Troy, I had a hot shower and went outside with cecilia to do a little exploring before dinner. First stop was an internet cafe and as I sat down to update everyone cecilia decided to go exploring on her own. I was a bit nervous about letting her out of my site as my neighbour from back home had filled my head with tales of women getting snatched left right and centre whilst in turkey. Sure she wasn't blonde but hey the way he warned me it made me wary.

After send a few quick emails I found cecilia wandering down the road and checking her watch for what time to meet back. I snuck up and stuck my watch in front of her from behind and scared her yet again. As we walked down the road we came accross a guy selling corn on the footpath that looked pretty dry and burnt. Cecilia got excited and asked for one. Suddenly they all shouted and they guy packed up and ran into the bushes. The police went by and he came out again. Cecilia still got her corn and gave me half.

It was burnt and tasted nasty but she seemed really happy with it. I got myself an ice cream a bit further down aswell as one for cecilia and she skipped along the road looking like a happy little kid, burnt corn in one hand and ice-cream in the other. I thought to myself hmm maybe there's hope for her yet.
Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and met everyone downstairs before all heading off to dinner.

The whole group strolled along the streets until we came to our restaraunt - the doy doy. We had table booked on the top of the roof overlooking the streets with the moscs in the background.
The menu consisted of kebabs of all sorts and they all looked great. While we waited for our meals, this loud sort of hym started playing all around us. Lyndy informed us that a few times a day the moscs all sing prayers and the speakers around the towers echo from the 5 or so moscs in the area.

It sounded awesome as one mosc would sing for a bit then another mosc would take over from another direction. It was like dolby surround prayers. My kebab arrived and it was the best I'd eaten. I couldn't finish my kebab it was so tassy but soo big.

After dinner we retreated downstairs to drink some apple tea and smoke some pipes. It was cool to suck in this massive pipe and not choke on the smoke like you would a cigarette, if you didn't smoke. The apple tea was really nice and supposedly another thing popular in this country. I sat there with my apple tea listening to the prayers being played through the large speakers on the towers of each mosc while a breeze came through the window. Instanbul was looking good so far.

We all mosied back to the hotel and on the way simon stoped to get a haircut. He looked like a budha after he came out. I was still good from my haircuts in barcelona. We continued on back to the hotel and we all said goodnite.

The next morning I awoke pretty early and it was fairly cold for the first time, so I was happy to rug up. I dropped my hard drive into a photo shop for backup cd's and went and had a coffee. It was cheap as and it was actually probably the best I'd had yet. I mosied back to the hotel just in time for breakfast. Most people were going on a tour through the city but I passed along with simon and tanya and cecilia. We went for a walk to the blue mosc which was free and did our tour.

The lunch packs Red had brought back from the doy doy restaraunt the night before looked pretty nasty when we opened them at lunch time. We found a nice little restaraunt and had another kebab style lunch. The toilet of the restaraunt was something that an oompa loompa built as you had walk up these little stairs to step through this tiny door which then opened up into a normal size room with a toilet. It was weird.

After lunch we all mosied onto the Grand Bazaar markets. It was like our sunday markets but ten times the size and in every direction you went it seemed to go on and on. I bought a couple of souvenier shirts but not before cecilia tryed bargaining them down for me. To be bargained down by a women must be an insult as not many of them would budge. I bargained to get some turkish delight and apple tea and thought I had a bargain only to discover a spice market down the road had everything a lot cheaper and nicer.

Cecilia stocked up on her teas to send back home and we eventually made it back to the hotel. Apparently turkish bathes are supposed to the best to remove built up dirt and seeing as we were both buggered from shopping and walking, it sounded like a relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

The guy at the hotel rang a bath down the road who happened to be a 5 star hotel. It was a little more than we thought and cecilia decided to walk some more and shop around. The other baths seemed crusty with old people and so we ended back at square one and took the 5 star hotel bath. We both got changed and went into the room full of downlights and wall to wall marble with a flat square of marble in the middle for lying on. It was awesome just laying there sweating my ass off. Cecilia looked pretty hot in her little blue bikini and kept calling me a se-kebe (japanese for - dirty old man) everytime I looked her way.

The guy came in a gave her a scrub first and she screamed and giggled the whole time. I could tell he was enjoying himself - B**stard! He seemed to take forever on her and when she was done she went and got her camera. I was nearly done by the time she was back for some reason. Cecilia got a few snaps in but I was not so lucky. The amount of dirt that came off our skin was pretty nasty. We finished then showered up and went out for dinner again.

We found a nice little restaraunt that was even better and cheaper than the doy doy around the corner. The food was awesome and I couldn't finish my meal again which was ok as the 10 or so cats running around seemed to enjoy it. We walked along the streeets for a while and came across an outdoor restraunt with turkish dancing and music. We stopped in for a another apple tea before heading back to have a yarn on the balcony outside my window of my room. An hour later Troy came back along with a few others and cecilia went to bed.

Simon and troy got stuck into some ouzo and put my uncles turkey shirts on and did their turkey support dance. I fell asleep only to be woken by water being poured on my croutch in which I jumped ten feet hight. I wasn't a happy camper but fell asleep again soon only to be woken up when a few drunken neighbours came visiting. I remember ej poking me trying to wake me up but I was dog tired so she had no chance.

The next day cecilia and I got up and just went and cruised along the streets. She was trying to find some eye liner stick thing for a friend back home - women I tell you. I managed to exchange a partially torn 50 euro note I had been carrying since my last night in veneze. We still had plenty of time to kill so we took a ferry ride up the river only to get off and realise that we had no idea where we were so we went back again.

Walking back from the ferry I was suckered by a shoe shine guy who's brush just happened to fall off as he was walking in front of me. He thanked me and asked me to put me feet on his little bench - big mistake. My new suede colarado's looked like antique leather after he had worked his magic. Then the cheeky bugger wanted 30 lierra for it. He demanded it and I told him like hell I can buy a new pair for that and told him 5. I was waiting for him to give me an excuse to slap him silly. He took the hint and walked off.

We kept walking along and came accross a park which lead to the moscs on the other side. Cecilia wanted a few photos of the pink mosc and after which we sat down on the grass for a rest. We were told off by some guard that we couldn't sit there. Oh well. We went back to the hotel and took a nap before heading out to dinner for the last time.

We went for a walk through the streets for the last time, stopping here and there to listen to the prayers of the moscs. A young boy approached us with his shoe shine kit and hit me up for a shoe shine. The other guy had missed a bit so I gave him a go at it. This kid was only 12 or so and at 9 o'clock at night out shining shoes. I sat there while he shined my shoes and his mate turned up with his mp3 player and played some 50 cent music. I gave the kid twice what he asked for, which was bugger all anyway. My shoes looked not much better but oh well.

Went back to the hotel stopping for a few supplies for the bus trip tommorrow. Watched some tv in cecilia's room while she packed then headed off to bed.

The next morning I got up early to have breakfast and waited out front with everyone before lugging our stuff down to the bus. It just happening to be absolutely pissing down - bugger. We made it to the bus, loaded up and headed off to the lovely eastern block with our first stop - bulgaria.