istanbul

Hey,

So we have just spent the last 5 days in Istanbul. It was pretty cool. We stayed at a hostel called Cordial House. For $12 a night it was fine, nothing as good as the place in Goreme though. Goreme had a great atmosphere about it, and the staff were so friendly and helpful.

The first day we went to the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofya. The Blue Mosque was beautiful, but I still think the best mosque I have seen so far is the Ummayed Mosque in Damascus. The Blue mosque is amazing architectually (yes that’s a word) but the Ummayed mosque had the most stunning courtyard.

But by far, the best building I have seen is the Aya Sofya. That was indescribable. Not as beautiful as the blue mosque on the outside, but the inside was just so awesome. Note: Both the Ummayed and the Aya Sofya were churches before they became mosques... Interesting that they are the best I have seen so far :). Anyway, The Aya Sofya still had some Christian paintings and designs and mosaics even though it is now a mosque.

Our hostel was in Sultanahmet, which is a really touristy area. We were about 400 metres from the Aya Sofya and I would not recommend staying in this area. The prices were triple in terms of food etc! Not good for students on a tight budget. But by the 3rd day we took a tram to Beyoglu and that was a much nicer place. No hassling from restauranteurs or shop keepers wanting you to come into their business. I though Amman was bad with men, but here...unbelievable!

We went to the Grand Bazaar a few times, and we got lines like “sweetie, kiss my lips”, “lady, lady, you dropped something!” I made the mistake of turning around... “My heart!” they would reply. And I also got...” I saw you yesterday!” I just kept walking this time... Another man asks him “when, when did you see her?”... “in my dreams!” the other would say. Arghhhh it was awful! We got followed once to by the worst stalker in the world. He was so bad and so not subtle about it. In the end I think we scared him more than he scared us. I just turned around and stopped and glared at him as if to say “I know what your doing...and you suck at it” and when he realised we knew he was following us, he got scared and left us alone.

The Grand Bazaar really was crap compared to the souqs in Syria, both Damascus and Halab. I guess we are so used to bargaining and getting things dirt cheap, but here they won’t have any of it. I asked one guy how much the price of these copper painted plates were and he said 35 lira!!! In Jordan you could get them for 5JD, so 10 lira, (10AU), so I told him that, and he said to me rather rudely “well go back to Jordan and get it then!”, and I replied, “Well I am going back there, so I will!” and stormed out. The Turks are way more ruder in the souqs than in Syria and Jordan. They hassle you, especially ‘coz we’re girls, and when we ignore them they follow us and insult us. So I didn’t really like the Grand Bazaar that much. The Spice Bazaar was nice, lots of turkish delight and dried fruit, but ridiculously expensive. It’s one of the big tourist hot spots, so the prices are crazy.

So all in all, Istanbul was ok, I’m going back there for a few days after this trip to Gallipoli, Tory and Ephesus. I still want to see a few more things there like the Topkapi Palace, and take a boat up the Bosphorus. Jo and I have just arrived in Canakkale (pronounced with a Ch)