A trip made for the game in the background splendor of the east gate of Istanbul ..... This is the travelogue:
Hello everyone, my name is Paul and my other half Christine, decided to go to Istanbul. Actually I was there was already 4 years ago if only for 2 days and then perhaps with a visit too hastily decided that one day I would return. After a quick consultation
Internet, there is a low-coast Italian company at bargain prices, the only "inconvenience" Sabiha Gocke arrival at the airport 40 km from the Asian tourist area
but for 240 euro a / r for any two people "sacrifice can also be do, while we opt for the hotel to hotel agan sirkeci area within walking distance of Santa Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque, Archaeological Museum and tanks, double room with bath and breakfast € 27 per room (see the reservation booking website. com).
27/09/2006
arrive at the airport of Bergamo Orio al Serio parked the car in the outdoor parking lot next to the airport (5 days. € 47.50) we check in and depart for Istanbul . The the flight is quiet enough modern aircraft and the crew very friendly.
arrive 10 min. in advance are 21.20 hours local (+ 1 compared to us) go down and we head to make an entry visa € 10 (no coins not accepted), take your bags and change immediately for € Turkish lira, the first exchange scam 1.77 (will be in town to 1.91) for advice changed as little as possible, find out the airport bus to Taksim area of \u200b\u200bHAVAS European district of Galata, but the ticket price for
8.50 Turkish lira. Once in Taksim Turkish gentle lady who was on the bus barters the price of the taxi and tells us not to give him more than 10 pounds, moral climb into the taxi and in about 25 min. we front of the hotel (the taxi driver asked around a few times because he could not find or did not want to find the hotel) costs 7.30 pounds with a taximeter, I feel good and leave the 10, thanks me and goes, we find later that perhaps it was the only driver onesto.Le formalities at the hotel are fast and we are now in the room, is a budget hotel without infamy and without praise, if you are happy that's great, is clean enough, breakfast is a bit low but us good.
28/09/2006
At 5.25 in the morning we wake up in the prayer of the muezzin, 5 min. and we fell back asleep. The weather is cloudy for the next 3 days. waiting for us once covered with rain, peccato.Dopo breakfast we head Topkapi to the wrong road but we do the scenic ride along the beach, and even so it was nice to finally arrive ... 10 lire each entry, as you enter I advise you to rent the audio guide is in Italian 10 lire and there also give a map of the interior of palazzo.E 'really good run in the building of the various sultans who was with the audio guide then everything is easier, we also encounter a couple of Italian guys that we met in Bergamo, we will company for the rest of the holiday. Every 30 min. Apart from the tour for the harem is in English but with the audio guide us understand more about the price 'of 10 pounds 35 min. somewhat concentrated, but that's okay. 4 hours have passed since our entry the building, we have traveled far and wide and now we head to Santa Sofia, the usual 10 pounds for those who want to avoid the entrance and we show you a bit inside ... beautiful sin for a huge scaffolding that covers almost all the central dome ... we're out an hour after we rest a while in a park between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque ... when we decide to visit the Blue Mosque is the hour of prayer and do not come in, we head the racetrack is the period of Ramadan, there are many stalls selling a little bit of everything and lots of tents and restaurant, starts to rain, we look for a taxi but they are all filled and then the show begins, one that tells you there is too much traffic and not brings you, the other the route is too short and does not earn enough in the end we go up one that makes the taximeter travel like a top, the grand finale, which doubles the figure off everything, asking me 15.50 for a race that was worth barely 2, but does not understand or protest better not to want to understand English, I pass a 20 bill and voila appears to him in the hand by a 1 then I get angry in earnest, he turns the table and told me that if I gave him 5 he gave me 10 ect.ect. A word of advice always treated the price before boarding the taxi. We are shivering in the hotel and angry, hot shower and good night.
29/09/2006
with Cristina decide not to take more taxis, study the map and I understand that the area of \u200b\u200bSulthanamet is 5 min. walk, we get tanks, are the Roman 550a.c. 10 lire and enter, beautiful, photography and wander into a surreal atmosphere and in the end we stopped near the exit to take a tea in a nice bar, where Juliana and Andrea meet again our fellow travelers, we give an appointment for the evening dinner and fumatona of hookah in a cemetery-den (Entertainment). We say goodbye and head with Cristina to eat a kebab restaurant in a racecourse, the owner speaks Italian and to impress said to be a Mafia in Palermo then there said he worked 10 years in Germany at an Italian restaurant and stress of returning to Turkey, discrete food kebab 2 and 2 bottles of water 10 pounds (but these are the Turkish fixed 10? ) Let's go to the Archaeological Museum, near the Topkapi, Entry 5 pounds but I spent a lot more, it is huge, there are beautiful antiques including several sarcophagi (beautiful that Alexander the Great), then pieces Hittite, Thracian, Babylonian, Sumerian, Egyptian , Romans, Greeks, Byzantines and Crusaders, as well as an entire wing at Troy. We spend about 3 hours, we are a bit tired going to bed a couple of hours in hotel.Riposati we go, we meet in front of tanks with Julie and Andrea, two beautiful boys, perhaps the most pleasant surprise of this trip, take us to dinner in a typical restaurant with two big woman sitting at the center who cook only Arab bread, the rest comes down from above in a basket. Dinner 25 with live music in two. We leave and head to the "den", the whole is housed in an old cemetery and take 4 tea with a pipe tobacco with apple, beautiful environment and the ignition of the whole ceremony hookah ... we also know a gigolo 'turkish with two English to impress that Cristina and Giuliana performs in hookah pull the envy of the fog in Milan, Grisù baptize him and the whole group agrees. In the same den, there is also a carpet shop, Giuliana perhaps a little "stoned" by too much apple performs in a fantastic bargain Arabic-English, but the rug is hung, too bad.
30/09/2006 Today the group is compact, partly because of the Taksim area. Moving on from the bridge of Galata, and admiring a lot of fishermen take the tunnel, beyond the bridge itself, is an old-meter cable car that leads on top of the Galata district, there, apart from the pedestrian street that goes to Taksim Square. The street is crowded, there are shops and even a Christian church dedicated to St. Anthony, we enter and we rest, unfortunately, Giuliana is not good look for a pharmacy to buy some aspirin, ask the police not the answer is ... I know .. (the incredible rudeness of the Turkish police) and we finally now understand that medicines are very cheap, a box of aspirins our own famous brand costs 1.70 pounds against our 3.85 €, four times less, we also discover a series of jokes between the boys who sell the pills too freely blue 'than for male problems ....... We come to taksim foot down and going up to the stage of the team Besiktas Istanbul , we arrive at the royal palace Dolmanbache. The building is on the sea, the visit led to a limited number every 30 min. there is a chance to visit the harem, but we do not care and 20 lire each managed to get the last visit (16 hours) if you want to photograph you spend another 6 lire.Qui Ataturk has spent the last year of his life, the building is nothing short of extraordinary Giuliana is in very good English translation of the guide. We go out there near the palace the ferry to the Asian zone, take water and 1.30 pounds on the other side and here we are starting the trouble ... it seems another country, perhaps this is the real turkey, not the amusement park for tourists in the area European?? Before a rude cashier with a bill because he had refused the veil a little hole, then "forget" to give change, then an old lady yells at malomodo to Andrea at the end looking for a restaurant for dinner but do not make us twist enter 3 different restaurants and told us that when they were fully booked dozens of tables are affected by such rudeness .... we decided to return to the European zone and near to our hotel we find a diner or Lokanta where we are welcomed and fed as Pasha .... the owner tells us about the dishes cooked in a turkish-greek-english but Julie understands everything on the fly, would your Sicilian roots? We understand that Turkey is not only the Asian zone with this antipathy against the West when a guy asks the owner of the English lokanta if he can 'use the toilet, he agrees and offers a free hot tea ... we stroppicciamo eyes confused by many contradictions, we pay the bill paltry 23 pounds in four 3 € per person and can assure you that it was a real blowout. We salute you and all to bed.
01/10/2006
Today we'll all go together on a trip on the Bosphorus, go to the pier near the bridge galata, Giuliana unanimously elected leader of the pack is already informed where to take the ferry (avoid those that Prospect station fantastic trips and then stapled € 20). The ticket costs around 10 pounds, the ferry makes 5 stops I advise you to get off at the penultimate and make you a ride up and down off, remember that the return goes to 15.20 but it's always best to ask at the ticket counter, we ate in the marina with views of fishing boats full of fresh fish and of course we ate fish on a budget and finally drinking a BEER hard to find in Istanbul. Come back abbiamovisitato the mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent, very good for the market and then to a dinner in a restaurant that's nothing. I do not feel very well a heavy cold is giving me problems Last night as we wanted to make us a smoke but I can not go to bed, and reluctantly.
10/02/2006 The cold is worse, I slept badly, tonight is the last day we start with Cristina to pack and pay the hotel, we have the same kind keep us up at night so we'll be free to turn of mind. I'll see you with Julie and Andrew and together we stop at the Grand Bazaar, our friends seem to have been born there, they know all the shops, in a few hours we buy a bit of everything from cloths to shoes, pashminas and gifts, then we go to market spices photos galore various scents and colors ... beautiful blinding. Stop for lunch in a kind of fast-food trappolone make us pay 3 pounds more for the service (free) and do not give us a Coke in the pot including Cristina, disappointed and angry but we want to go out there is Julie and rushed to the cashier, a turkish sitting next to us who offered to speak Italian help (thank goodness they are not all equal) moral reimburse us a penny and Julie does a turkish cazziatone to (poor) who speaks Italian, saying that with cabbage in Europe will continue to cheat if so tourists, replying that he excuse his hand not all the same (but we will be 70% we found them so). Let's get your bags and we are in a narrow street with your luggage to the taxi trade for 4 Levent near taksim to resume the Havas bus, but not know when it passes (ask on arrival) then decide to stop the taxi and ask how much they want to go directly to the airport, the unbelievable happens here, Cristina support for 5 seconds, the bag with passports and vouchers over the suitcase to put on a jacket, two girls stand in the way we begin to scream and names of hotels, we look surprised ... but they want ... ... no hotel at the time Cristina realizes that the bag is gone and starts to scream .. .. but who took it? We rush toward the two girls who had disappeared in the meantime, picking a guy to agree with them with the bag in his hand (it was past behind us and took her) Cristina insulting snatches the bag from his hands, explaining that defends itself that there was the giving back, ascends the anger but also fear, we were in Italy we would have stopped and called the police but our flight leaves in about 3 hours and we have yet to arrive, with this traffic, 40 km away. We contact various drivers, want to take us to the airport with the meter so we spin like tops to raise the price, we will stop a charging € 32 for 60 pounds is willing to lead but then insists that we do not earn enough and stops the brother who had alerted the phone, tired we did go down 200 meters and the time goes on we tirandoci hundred meters behind the pack and finally found a taxi driver, from 90 pounds, Giuliana very good contract, the contract does not know a word of English but drops to 80, this is a good sign, it forms a knot of people around us, everyone wants to participate in the negotiations, we look at Cristina and I laugh ... these are crazy .... they form two sides of the pros and Conversely, a nice lady and a gentleman
translate from English .... 75 ...... 70 ....... emptied his pockets to come by .... 65 ..... come on. ... ok ..... ok ..... Juliana turns said ok!! Inshallah!! Now everybody is laughing all's well that ends well (in Turkey), we climb into the taxi, the driver is young and cute, a bit chubby, he speaks in turkish and tells us that the meter stick just to show us that they will lose , then to guide us ... hyatt hotel, hilton hotel, Suisse Hotel and other things that we do not know, Andrea is sitting next to him, the driver spoke to him often, I recommend Andrea to speak with the head always is, the traffic is heavy, we arrive at the airport in one hour and thirty ... the meter marks 48 pounds plus 10 on the highway ... we will have won?? We think anyway otherwise you would not, dear .... Istanbul airport is all either love or hate, a bit like the Turks, but perhaps looking for the last time from the airplane window, illuminated at night, I see a smile .... shake the hand of Cristina, now I smile to you .. try to get some sleep, arrival there are still two hours away by car.
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