Wicked Life

The train ride was incredible and it has made my list of top cool things to do. There is just something really cool about sleeping and traveling hundreds of km to wake up to the foggy farms with mosques dotting the horizon.

Istanbul is such a cool city, everyone is very friendly and the carpet sellers try their hardest... Of course no matter where you are from he carpet guy has a friend, cousin or goat tha had lived there... Then its free tea and a never ending parade of carpets.

The Grand Bazaar is AMAZING. 4000 shops of every kind, buy g-strings by the kg. Haha. But watch out, when you leave the country, customs agents can make you pay double the 'real' price on knock-off products, curbing fake goods I guess.

I'm staying at 'Antique Hostel' for 8€ a night, includes breakfast. It's only two blocks from Blue Mosque and about 5-6 blocks from the Grand Bazaar. Not to mention the tram line and a few cheap phone centres.

You really need to shop around and know your prices, post cards range from 0.30€ each to 20 for 1€! Telephone rates are also out to lunch you could get ripped of easy if you don't shop around.

Istanbul has a vibe to it, some locals still take pictures of westerners and it isn't as traditional as I expected. Men wear jeans, leather jackets... Women are mostly westernized with perhaps 25% wearing head scarves and very rarely the whole body cover.

I'm staying for at least five nights for now, maybe longer, next is 'probably' Ankara. Hit the bus station at Otogar and you can get the down to about 12€ to Ankara and 14€ to Sofia (Bulgaria).

This place is dirt cheap, I ate three kinds of animals for lunch, it was spicey, yep... Turkey will be fun.

Side note; I wandered with Marie today and almost no one acknowledges her from a business perspective. Many looks, a few comments, definitly a male society, much less so than I though however. I think Istanbul is more liberal, drinking, seeing women, oh my.