May 20th, 2010 Istanbul

3AM I got to Istanbul and got a couple of hours of sleep on the chairs. I met a boy and a girl from Portugal traveling in the area, who planned to spend 3 days there. The exchange rates at the airport was terrible so I scoped out people going to the desks for Euros. After half an hour of hunting, I finally got a guy to exchange 100 Liras with me. Afterward, I offered to exchange the Portugese friends since they also had no Liras. We took a train to the center, which was Sultanamet and parted ways. I bought some ice cream, which is actually disappointing before getting into Sultanamet. I heard about it from the German man sitting next to me on the plane. It is the largest mosque in Turkey but uninteresting besides that. I actually got there before they opened. I met a group of students in their teens and they were quite curious about me. Something tells me that there are hardly any Asians in this country. They see Germans and occasionally other kinds of Europeans but hardly any Asians and Blacks.

New Mosque

8AM The kids wanted to talk to me and so I did. We walked past the Mosque of Sofia and to the palace of Topkapi Sarayi and the Harem. They got in for free and I had to pay 20 TRYs. The gold, silver, jewels, relics were the most magnificent that I have ever seen and trumps anything in China. These guy swere loaded. I also paid 5 EURs for a listening guide which was largely useless here but could have been helpful at the Harem, which was another 15 TRYs.

The Harem Palace

Topkapi Sarayi

Outside Topkapi Sarayi

12PM I looked for a phone and someone led me to the post office. Three phone call to couchsurfing hosts costed me a little over 1 TRY. I then visited the spice market and the New Mosque, which much smaller than the Blue Mosque.

3PM The Mosque of Sofia (Ayasofya) was much more interesting. I listened in on a Shanghaiese tour group. The guide caught me but they let me stay for just that tour. I then went to eat some pudding at the Moda Ice Cream store, which was a chain. The pudding was mediocre at best but I got free internet, which was what I was looking for.

Outside the New Mosque

4PM I then visited the Grand Bazaar, which is supposely the largest one here, second only to one in Japan in the world. I did not see all of it but got the point. It was huge but the individual stores are not that big. I am not sure if it is bigger than the one in the Minnesota if you just speak of the area covered. Then again, real estate is probably more expensive here.

5PM I purchased a bus ticket to Ephesus. It made the most sense since Cappadolce would take more like 2 days and then I would have spent 5 days just in Turkey.

6PM I met with a CS host Cumhur and had korfe with him. We talked about a buch of things, including my travel plans to Ephesus and Cappadolce in the future. He himself has not visited these places and has not stepped foot in most of Europe. I suppose he believed most people in Turkey are Asians rather than Europeans as well. He paid for both of us in TRYs and I paid him 5 Euros. He instead on not taking the 50 cents I owed him.

8PM Cumhur sent me to the bus station and I left for Ephesus. Turkey’s weather is moderately warm, even at night in April. There were a couple of SF girls on the bus. They both had more legs on them than me,:one has been traveling for 1 year and the other 3 months in Africa and the Middleast.