Istanbul - A trip to the neighbors (Part 4)

The last part of my Istanbul trip was delayed, because of posts about the protests in Bulgaria and my laziness, but it's already here.

It seems that I have exhausted my fellow travelers in the last three days and leave them at the room to rest, while I go for a walk around the hotel.

The streets of Istanbul

Istanbul - A trip to the neighbors (Part 3)

Today the weather is gloomy again, but unlike yesterday the sun doesn't want to show. Rain-proofed, we head to the Sultanahmet Sq. with our favorite tram. On the square, where once the Constantinople hippodrome was situated, there are two obelisks erected (I always wonder if it is obelisk or Obelix, at least Asterix is always around to remind me which one is correct). The first of them, the Egyptian obelisk, built in 15th c. BC in Luxor, looks like its official opening ceremony was just yesterday and not 3,500 years ago. The second one, the obelisk/column of Constantine or the Walled obelisk, looks much older, but in fact is 200-300 years newer, it just haven't been using enough day lotion with Q10 for wrinkles/cracks. Between the two giants, there is a small metal column, the Serpent column, which has turned green with envy because of its low height.

Pigeons-migeons

Istanbul - A trip to the neighbors (Part 2)

During the past night, a rather substantial rain poured down, but in the morning the sun has already found its place on the sky and has chased away most of the clouds. While my fellow-travelers are still getting ready, I conduct my photo observation of the streets from above. I like quite much to observe from a high point, people on the streets are very natural, because they don't see me and therefore are not camera shy, besides that the point of view is completely different.

Waiting for the 24A bus to Eminönü, for example

Istanbul - A trip to the neighbors (Part 1)

September, 2012. Sunday. At an odd time (regarding the day of the week) I and two friends of mine decide to go to Istanbul for several days. We choose these strange days – from Sunday to Wednesday, because my fellow travelers are going back to the States after a week. And I, if you ask most of my friends I am "ailyak" (which according to the dictionary is an idle person, one at a loose end), so I don't have a problem with the odd time of the week. We load up in my car, the space ship or the shark, according to the point of view, and we are off to our destination – Istanbul, the only city situated on two continents, that is if the Arabs don't plan to build something similar one day, in which case, it should be read as the first/original city situated on two continents.

We approach the city, moreover we are entering into the city, since it is quite large, and start looking at the navigation for our exit. Something like a premature ejaculation occurs, since we shoot ourselves from the highway too early. Quite unpleasant. Back and forth, going twice around an unknown neighborhood, we make it back to the highway. I won't explain this with any physical function of the body, and frankly, I don't want to think which one it could be. We find the proper exit and this time we fire ourselves out of the highway at the right spot. We check out some hotels and choose one with free parking and wifi. We are in the Topkapi neighborhood, it's not the famous palace, but still is in the boundaries of the ancient Constantinople/Istanbul, as we are close to the defense stone walls. We freshen up, pay for the first night with almost all of our local money and go out.