Strange Night

My good first impressions were temporarily shattered about an hour after I'd gone to bed when someone took one of the beds in the dormitory. As it turned out, he was the brother of the boss but that didn't make much difference when he began to snore. I soon realized the guy was drunk and nothing could be done to stop him from creating minor earth tremors every minute or so. The guy on night duty offered to let me have another room which I accepted, only to find this in the bathroom. 

This is the bird in the bathroom which I ejected from the window, complete with nest.  Hope the poor creature wasn't too traumatized and has found another residence. It has crossed my mind as to how long ago that room was last used.

But however the breakfast, included in the 10 euro price of staying here was excellent, on the top floor terrace with a great view of the Marmara Sea. 
On the left is the Cem Sultan Hotel which even though a disastrous night was had, I think its not going to give me any more surprises - hopefully. 

So on with the day in which I had a ramble around the vicinity which includes the Blue Mosque. I think it was a bit too late to go inside with the crush of probably thousands of tourists. In wandering around it is obvious that tourism is Istanbul's big earner.


The legendary carpet shops abound everywhere with the customary offers of big reductions and free shipping to anywhere you want. Maybe I'll test them out and ask someone to knock off the shipping after a lengthy haggle and see what happens. On the other hand I dont think I've got the patients for that.

Women of course have to cover their shoulders because they are women!!!!

This rather reminded me of the queue waiting to get into the cathedral  in Santiago de Compost Heap.

Lots of feral cats here. This one likes the mosque.

Me and the mosque

I didn't feel to much like anything very adventurous so I stayed fairly near the hostel. Some Roman artifacts still remain, and also the remains of prominent Sultans. 

An obelisk and the Serpent Column in the foreground from around the  3rd  century.

And so for lunch, or dinner, whatever you want to call it, I had a superb one at this restaurant very  close to the Cem Sultan. bon appetit. 

Hot and Sultry

Just arrived at the Cam Sultan Hotel after a pretty long day of travelling. When I stepped out of the plane into the hot humidity at around 11.30pm, I knew I was in Asia. It was almost the same feeling as landing at Delhi. This hostel is only a few hundred metres from the Blue Mosque, perfectly central and pleasant people running it.

I had been worrying about the metro and public transport stopping at such a late hour but after finding the airport metro station full of people, my fears rapidly evaporated. The token system was a bit difficult to sort out but eventually armed with 2 of these plastic disks I was on my way to the old city of Istanbul. I needed to use a train and a tram to arrive here, passing just about all the sights along the way. Couldn't miss them because of the superb illumination in the hot night air. Cant wait to get out tomorrow and see something of the city.

So, first impressions are that I'm going to enjoy this place which really has a distinct similarity and atmosphere to some of the Indian cities I have washed up in over the years.

That's it for now. Sorry no pictures yet - knackered and going to bed in the basement of the hotel where its pleasantly cool. D