ISTANBUL 10th=14th Feb

Our hostel was situated in the center of Sultanahmet on the European side of Istanbul within easy walking distance of the blue mosque and the grand bizarre which became our second home. Throughout our stay in the hostel we had half a dozen other travelers pass through who we become friends with and we roamed the city together. On the first full day we walked to the Asian side of the city accompanied by Leandro our Brazilian room mate. In the evening we met with 2 girls from Canada as well as Eric our Nigerian room mate studying a masters degree in Helsinki and went to a shesha den. The night continued with us educating Eric into the early hours of the morning about UK Hiphop.

The following day was spent snooping around the grand bizarre and the Arab market. What was very strange was that it started to snow which is not how I pictured the weather in turkey, but because of this cold weather we found out about possibly the best hot drink in the world called silep sp? which we purchased off a man in the street with a big kettle contraption. It tastes like custard and they sprinkle cinnamon on the top.

On the third day we stayed in until midday to see Eric off then headed ounce again into the bizarre but this time with our new room mate called Marios from Germany. I brought some rather fetching slippers as I only had walking boots up until that point. The evening was spent jamming with the German, Korean and Japanese men in our room listening to spin out Japanese music provided not by the Japanese man but weirdly by marios the german.

On our final day in Istanbul we managed to make it down the road to the Blue mosque which was spectacular inside and out. We thought how very unfunny it would be if, while leaving our shoes outside so that we could go inside the mosque our shoes were to be stolen but as luck would have it this did not happen.

In the evening we set off for Bulgaria!

oli

To view our pictures: http://s258.photobucket.com/albums/hh249/EdOliOscar/