ISTANBUL part one

7 October

Arrived

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Kevin gill and all my girls at the roof top garden in the hotel[/caption]

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One of three maps all marked up like this[/caption]

in Istanbul safe and sound Great flight on Turkish airways, then I read it has been the top European airline for the past 4 years.(who would have guessed)

Met Kevin and Gill at the airport ( this amazed. Me considering the size of the airport we actually found each other) , we arrived at the hotel dumped the bags and set out to go and get drunk somewhere!!!

The hotel by the way was quite a small room after all the spacious accommodation we had had in Rome, cruise and Venice, due to our brilliant travel lady ,but greatly situated in the city by the river and as Trish says, “ it is spotless”

When Kevin travels to a new country or city he spends a lot of his leisure time prior to coming marking up sections of maps with the locations of all the best bars and restaurants he has found from trip advisor “…….. To the. New York times , to the Times of London , he then marks the map up with red stars and arrows, and if it is not on the map we do not go in. We found some of them and they were all superb , location and class.( see photo of map )

Currency is lire and basically two lire = one Canadian dollar, so I would say in the medium class bars and restaurants prices are equal to canada but once you move up a notch the prices are double, needless to say we visited plenty of roof top bars with great views food and drinks which where not cheap. Hanging out with my bro in Istanbul , life could not be. Better.

the next morning ( about 11 am ) we went touring before the girls arrived back from Tel Aviv. We crossed the river to the old town ( there must be plenty of fish here. Judging by the amount of guys fishing off the bridge, and the smell !!!!

The main sites to start off with where the spice bazaar and the grand bazaar, we did. A portion of both , how vast an area could a bazaar be. I do believe the whole population of 17 million Istanbullians where at the bazaar, once you chat to dealer, just asking the price of something and they believe that they have made a sale , very difficult to get away, in saying that things are very cheap,( if you need them )

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The blue mosque[/caption]

Will complete later

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