So it's been a minute since i have been able to post on this blog and finish our stories. I guess quitting your job has that affect on the rest of your social engagements. Anyway, now that I am free from work, at least for today, I decided to hurry up and finish these posts.
Our last days on the trip were sort of a whirlwind. We still took lots of photos, but after three weeks of photo ops, we were both a little lackluster on taking a bunch of shots.
Since we were also on tour for the two full days we were in Istanbul, we really didnt have to worry about too much in terms of thinking of logistics.
On our first full day of touring we went on a city tour that had all the major mosques (or moss-kays as the tour guide's thick turkish accent made it sound)
We started off at this random restaurant which we realized that we'd be seeing a lot more of in the next few days. Truthfully I have no idea what the place was even called, but it was a little bit lame since there were these random souvenir sellers inside the restaurant. They were basically street peddlers so that was a bit annoying.
We met our tour guide and he was just wearing some crazy t-shirt that said something about not making friends in his tribe or some randomness... The thing in Turkey is that the guides dont really have uniforms or anything and some of them just look a little suspect.
Our tour group isnt too big but how come there is a group of ladies who should have been with the Spanish Speaking tour group so they are only half understanding what the guy says. I am only half understanding what he says as well since his accent is pretty hefty. Ugh.
Our first stop is the Hagia Sofia and The Blue Mosque. You know there were like 5 gazillion people up in that mix. Damn it. There's like cruise ship tours, regular tours, all hitting at the same time. It's so stupid that we have to wait in line to get into the joint. It's a good thing Rachel and I already went to this place the day before but still.
We also figured out why it wasnt smelling all footy in the mosque. They had just replaced the carpeting for Ramadaan so they had a nice new carpet in the mosque. It was really pretty carpeting too. However it could have easily been in vegas since it was all patterned. Have you ever noticed that the carpets in the vegas are always these loco patterns? Like you can never figure out where you are because the carpet and the tables all look the same throughout the entire damn casino. You have to find your way on the fringes. But I digress...
After we went to the mosque and mini-museum we drove around and headed to a carpet demonstration and the Grand Bazaar. Unfortunately because the carpet demo took so long and they were WAY out of my price range....what? did you say that welcome mat sized one was 400 Euro? Oooh i gotta go. So we haul ass to the bazaar where they tell us we have about 20 minutes to check it out. For those of you not familiar, the Grand Bazaar is kinda like Istanbul's tourist flea market. The wares are all in mini-stalls/storefronts, but there are approximately 4000 of them. Honestly, 20 minutes will not do the job. We decide before we even get there that we will need to go back for our souvenir shopping.
We get to the bazaar and it is totally overwhelming. Every single stall is crammed full of stuff. So we also need to try our hand at bargaining. I have decided that I kinda suck at bargaining. Like i can comparison shop like nobody's business, but that bargaining part just wastes my time and energies. Why don't you just tell me how cheap you will sell me something?? Anyway, we look at about 3 stalls and decide that we need to bounce out. However, we do find a couple of things that we'd like to come back and purchase. We go back to get lunch with our tour.
As usual we have a suspect lunch and we also find out that there everyone at our table only speaks Spanish. That was totally not helping our cause to convince people that we were indeed NOT Mexican. Every single person at the Grand Bazaar asked us 2 questions. 1) Como estas senoritas? and 2) are you sisters? oy vey. We don't even look alike people. Crimony.
We saw a bunch of other mosques during the rest of the tour, but I was pretty over it. The guy was hard to understand and I was getting super tired. However there were these Australian guys with their mom on the tour that were pretty hilarious. We found out they were at our Whirling Dirvish show too. So there's kids everywhere trying to sell you shit--kinda like in Mexico and the kids selling chicklets....anyway, these kids sell crap like these light up spinning tops. so they try to sell things to everyone. The one guy on our tour, although it wasnt right, i was laughing.... So this kid tries to sell the Aussie a top and the guy says no thanks, and he had his little sticker to identify him as part of our tour on his hand. He pats the kid on the back while sticking the sticker on this kid. It was so childish, but I was dying. Sorry, I am still immature. It was hilarious, but reading back, definitely a had to be there moment. Maybe it was just hot so it was funnier? I don't know.
Our last days on the trip were sort of a whirlwind. We still took lots of photos, but after three weeks of photo ops, we were both a little lackluster on taking a bunch of shots.
Since we were also on tour for the two full days we were in Istanbul, we really didnt have to worry about too much in terms of thinking of logistics.
On our first full day of touring we went on a city tour that had all the major mosques (or moss-kays as the tour guide's thick turkish accent made it sound)
We started off at this random restaurant which we realized that we'd be seeing a lot more of in the next few days. Truthfully I have no idea what the place was even called, but it was a little bit lame since there were these random souvenir sellers inside the restaurant. They were basically street peddlers so that was a bit annoying.
We met our tour guide and he was just wearing some crazy t-shirt that said something about not making friends in his tribe or some randomness... The thing in Turkey is that the guides dont really have uniforms or anything and some of them just look a little suspect.
Our tour group isnt too big but how come there is a group of ladies who should have been with the Spanish Speaking tour group so they are only half understanding what the guy says. I am only half understanding what he says as well since his accent is pretty hefty. Ugh.
Our first stop is the Hagia Sofia and The Blue Mosque. You know there were like 5 gazillion people up in that mix. Damn it. There's like cruise ship tours, regular tours, all hitting at the same time. It's so stupid that we have to wait in line to get into the joint. It's a good thing Rachel and I already went to this place the day before but still.
We also figured out why it wasnt smelling all footy in the mosque. They had just replaced the carpeting for Ramadaan so they had a nice new carpet in the mosque. It was really pretty carpeting too. However it could have easily been in vegas since it was all patterned. Have you ever noticed that the carpets in the vegas are always these loco patterns? Like you can never figure out where you are because the carpet and the tables all look the same throughout the entire damn casino. You have to find your way on the fringes. But I digress...
After we went to the mosque and mini-museum we drove around and headed to a carpet demonstration and the Grand Bazaar. Unfortunately because the carpet demo took so long and they were WAY out of my price range....what? did you say that welcome mat sized one was 400 Euro? Oooh i gotta go. So we haul ass to the bazaar where they tell us we have about 20 minutes to check it out. For those of you not familiar, the Grand Bazaar is kinda like Istanbul's tourist flea market. The wares are all in mini-stalls/storefronts, but there are approximately 4000 of them. Honestly, 20 minutes will not do the job. We decide before we even get there that we will need to go back for our souvenir shopping.
We get to the bazaar and it is totally overwhelming. Every single stall is crammed full of stuff. So we also need to try our hand at bargaining. I have decided that I kinda suck at bargaining. Like i can comparison shop like nobody's business, but that bargaining part just wastes my time and energies. Why don't you just tell me how cheap you will sell me something?? Anyway, we look at about 3 stalls and decide that we need to bounce out. However, we do find a couple of things that we'd like to come back and purchase. We go back to get lunch with our tour.
As usual we have a suspect lunch and we also find out that there everyone at our table only speaks Spanish. That was totally not helping our cause to convince people that we were indeed NOT Mexican. Every single person at the Grand Bazaar asked us 2 questions. 1) Como estas senoritas? and 2) are you sisters? oy vey. We don't even look alike people. Crimony.
We saw a bunch of other mosques during the rest of the tour, but I was pretty over it. The guy was hard to understand and I was getting super tired. However there were these Australian guys with their mom on the tour that were pretty hilarious. We found out they were at our Whirling Dirvish show too. So there's kids everywhere trying to sell you shit--kinda like in Mexico and the kids selling chicklets....anyway, these kids sell crap like these light up spinning tops. so they try to sell things to everyone. The one guy on our tour, although it wasnt right, i was laughing.... So this kid tries to sell the Aussie a top and the guy says no thanks, and he had his little sticker to identify him as part of our tour on his hand. He pats the kid on the back while sticking the sticker on this kid. It was so childish, but I was dying. Sorry, I am still immature. It was hilarious, but reading back, definitely a had to be there moment. Maybe it was just hot so it was funnier? I don't know.
We also met another guy on our tour who was from Georgia but was visiting Turkey with his cousin (who seriously I thought that was his GF...a little too familiar to be family...but maybe that's just me). Anyway, he was cool too. They had been vacationing with the rest of their family in Baku. Yeah I had no idea where it was either...I guess it borders Turkey. The family is from Iran, so there are only certain countries that both of them can visit together and he was military so he had issues getting into Istanbul. Whoa. So many government restrictions.
Oh and also, the rest of the mosques...smelled footy. Doesn't help that there are a ton of people with no shoes. Thinking about it makes me need to get into wide open spaces. Damn sensitive nose.
Finally our tour ended and we had about an hour to relax before we went to the "dinner show" We didn't know what to expect from this thing.
The car picks us up, and I am relieved to find out the place we are going is not the same restaurant that is the tour meeting place. We drive across town to the Taksim district (apparently the business district in Istanbul--apparently lots of places to go out too...but it looked safe and modernized. I love this place.)
So we arrive at the restaurant, and there are like 5 people there to greet us. It seemed a little odd, but we just figured they were friendly. However we walk into the restaurant to find out that we are THE FIRST PEOPLE TO ARRIVE!!! !Dude....seriously, this place is pretty big, how are we the first people here. I felt so lame. So our waiter comes over, brings us our wine and some Turkish apps--it's dark as hell so I have no idea what we are being fed, I am trying to pull the candle on our table as close as possible to my plate to get some idea what we are eating. Since we were first in to the restaurant we had prime seating next to the stage. Fortunately people started to arrive at the restaurant and it got probably around 3/4 full by the time the musicians came out. The show was totally hokey. Think Turkish Luau but not cool like a Hawaiian luau....however it was still pretty fun. Since we were so close to the action we were participants on more than one occasion.
Finally our tour ended and we had about an hour to relax before we went to the "dinner show" We didn't know what to expect from this thing.
The car picks us up, and I am relieved to find out the place we are going is not the same restaurant that is the tour meeting place. We drive across town to the Taksim district (apparently the business district in Istanbul--apparently lots of places to go out too...but it looked safe and modernized. I love this place.)
So we arrive at the restaurant, and there are like 5 people there to greet us. It seemed a little odd, but we just figured they were friendly. However we walk into the restaurant to find out that we are THE FIRST PEOPLE TO ARRIVE!!! !Dude....seriously, this place is pretty big, how are we the first people here. I felt so lame. So our waiter comes over, brings us our wine and some Turkish apps--it's dark as hell so I have no idea what we are being fed, I am trying to pull the candle on our table as close as possible to my plate to get some idea what we are eating. Since we were first in to the restaurant we had prime seating next to the stage. Fortunately people started to arrive at the restaurant and it got probably around 3/4 full by the time the musicians came out. The show was totally hokey. Think Turkish Luau but not cool like a Hawaiian luau....however it was still pretty fun. Since we were so close to the action we were participants on more than one occasion.
The funniest (ok maybe it was the second funniest) thing that happened that night was that our waiter who was totally sweet asked Rachel if she needed a friend in Turkey. And if so, he wanted to be her friend. He really meant well, but I couldnt help but think that he sounded like Borat. It was like, "I like you, I want to be your friend. Do you want to be my friend?" Totally meant well, but it was pretty funny.
I think the FUNNIEST thing that happened that night was that when we got pulled up to go dance on the stage with a bunch of random people this one guy (photo below) took this as his moment to SHINE...like he was on dancing with the stars or some madness. Dude went off, he was doing like these drop kicks and all sort of belly dancing moves. He was getting his groove on. Rachel and I were dying. Rachel actually snapped him mid dance. Flippin hilarious.
shaking what your mama gave you.
After all the laughs we needed to leave. We tried to go for a walk so that we werent stuck watching more old people dance on stage, since our ride wouldnt be back for another 45 minutes. So when we attempted to leave on our own, they flipped out. We just said we were going to go outside and walk around, and the guy was all, "no. I am sorry, it is not safe" EXCUSE ME??? Whoa. Rachel and I were like this looks safer than where we are staying?! But they wouldnt budge, totally made us sit and have some turkish coffee, which tastes like crap btw, and then they called our driver. Even the driver was like, no you can't go out by yourself over there. not safe for woman. oh dear. I need to go home now. and i mean HOME HOME...take me back to my mean streets of the US. So that was day 2 in Istanbul. Good times
1 comment:
Baku is in Azerbaijan...the only reason why I know that is because there was a weird chance I could have went there this year if I applied for some Brussels conference on energy. I missed the deadline. Oh, well!
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