The bed was as hard as a rock, Heather was up at 5am and I got up about 7. Bulgarian breakfast for me (some kind of bread keish thing...pretty good) and Heather had the trusty English breakfast. I tried to drink some yogurt breakfast drink that the waitress said was good...yea...not so much, tasted like salty liquid cottage cheese.

We asked the front desk attendents where the Women's Market was...and both of them immediately got a frown on there face and said something to the effect of, "why would you want to go there? Just a bunch of gypsies..." So apparently the tourist books weren't accurate in their recommendation to go there? So instead we headed down the street to the Rotunda of St. George...again no pictures allowed...but see below for what I was able to sneak. The traditional Bulgarian gaurds at the President's office, the archeology muesem, and the large Jewish synagoge were next on our tour this morning. Saw a couple groups of tourist being led around the sites...bunch of newbies! Heather saw a street vendor with some paintings and wood carvings, so we stopped in and found a neat wood carving; however, Bulgarian's don't value 'metal money' (coins) and I had a big stack of $2 euro's from the exchange lady I wanted to be rid of. So the vendor guy tells me to come with him to the money changing place and get 'paper money'. I'm thinking, this is weird, money is money right? Alright, lets go, the vendor's stall is right here in the middle of plain sight, nothing could happen, "Heather stay here and watch his stuff..." So off we go on a half mile walk to the money changing place and the whole time I'm thinking, "This better not be a scam, I'm going to whoop this old man's ass, and Heather is going to be pissed at me either way..." SO of course, while I'm gone a fight breaks out in the vendor stall across from where Heather is standing and she's freaking out and debating whether to run off or not. At the same time, she's thinking, "oh my god, they are going to kill him, then they're going to come back for me. I'm stuck here in the middle of Bulgaria with nothing but a $2000 camera...I don't even know which direction the hotel is! I'm sooooo screwed!" (she told me all this later) Meanwhile, I'm finding out that the exchange rate of Euro to Lev with paper currency is 1.95 while metal currency is only 1.70. Guess I got screwed by the lady at Western Union. "Metal money no good here in Bulgaria" my little vendor man tells me as we walk back. Heather's face when I came into view was "Oh thank God, he's not dead (yet) and neither am I." So we get our little wood carving and the stinky old man gives Heather a nice minature version in a necklace to go with a nice stinky hug for the photo op. So as we walk back to the hotel we realize we have another 1.5 hours before we need to leave so we go against the recommendation of the desk clerks and go to the Women's Market. They were right, nothing but gypsies, fruit and veggies, and a bunch of old broken tools. Half an hour spent, what to do with the last hour? Off we go to find some more ice cream....2 miles later we finally find a stall, but definetly not as good as the day before's. Back 2 miles to the hotel, load up and drive to the airport.

Communication barriers in Bulgaria is an understatement! I think we found 2 people in 2 days that knew more than 2 English words...we on the otherhand are miserable failures at Bulgarian.

What do people not understand about 1 carry-on? This crazy lady thinks she is going to bring 4 carry-ons...this is after she had to rearrange her 2 check-ins because they were both over-weight! FINALLY an airline does something about it and tells her she can't get on the plane, only 1 carry-on allowed per passenger...they kick her out of the boarding line to figure out what she wants to leave behind. Maybe I'll fly with these people more often! No wait...they charge for water on the plane, nevermind. Anyhow, they finally let her on with her 4 carry-ons, don't know if she paid more or not. An hour and a half later, we land in Istanbul.

More language barrier problems. Our driver knows exactly 1 word in English, "hello". So we have an interesting time during the hour drive across Istanbul...he's trying to talk to me in Turkish and I'm trying to answer him in English, we resort to a lot of makeshift sign language and laughs. Most random sight of the day...at the stop light along the way, there are 2 guys in the road selling phone chargers, like, "hey buddy, nice phone you have there, need a car charger for it??" WTF?

Our driver doesn't know where the hotel is so we drive down some interesting back roads trying to find it...don't like the way you're going on a 1 way in Istanbul? No problem, just let off the brake and let it coast back down the hill, watch out for cars coming up the hill in your direction though. 

Finally found the hotel, Grand Penisula Hotel, it's an old Ottoman style house that has been renovated and turned into a B&B. The room is nicer than the one in Sofia, but considerably smaller. I didn't think it was possible, but the bed is harder!
 
And then out we go! The guy at the front desk speaks remarkably good English and tells us exactly how to navigate out of the area to the sights, but he tells us the Grand Bazaar is a 20 minute walk...its more like 10 minutes, and that's stopping to take 15 photos. We experienced our first call to prayer on the way...wow! those megaphones on the minarets are loud! The Grand Bazaar is everything and more that you'd expect of a place that takes up 61 city streets and has 4000+ shops. Tourists everywhere! and this time, we blend right in with them (I'm disgusted with ouselves, bunch of tourists...). Carpet sellers are relentless, antique dealers are quiet and suspicious of you, jewelry sellers are sleezy, and money changers all look like scoundrels. The unexperienced mass of toursists jam into the first 10 stalls on either side of the gates into the Grand Bazaar and pay double the price for the same item as they could on the 2nd steet in. The exchange rate also gets better the further in you get, almost 10 cents per dollar better. In the end, we're not overly impressed by the entire place, Bangkok's Night Bazaar was much more interesting. However, if you're in the mood for amazingly bad fake Louis Vitton, Burberry, or Prada, you've found the place...and don't forget to get your Chanel #5 on the way out from the guys dealing out of plastic bag on the sidewalk. We may go back tomorrow to have some more apple tea in a carpet dealer's shop...bunch of damn tourists.

On the walk back to the hotel we bought a "half bread" chicken sandwich from a guy wielding a 3' knife and sat on the base of Constantine's Column which legend reports houses the axe Noah used to build the ark. I'm doubtful...

As we worked our way back to the hotel we visited the Hippodrome, which is getting a make-over with all new landscaping and pavers through-out, to visit the Egyptian Obelisk which was proliferated by Constantine from the city of Luxor. The Serpentine Column is getting a facelift, so its not visible at the moment.

Last stop of the day, an amazing dinner at Metropolis Cafe around the corner from our hotel. "Eye of the Sultan" for me and "Turkish Meatballs" for Heather. Great outdoor cafe with excellent food and service, still I thought the price was a little high, Heather disagrees. Eitherway, we highly recommend.

Heather enviously eyes the groups of people having a beer/wine gathered around the water pipes in the smoke lounges all along the street...