Monday 27th April 2009. Left camp early (at Kazanlak, Bulgaria) - it wasn't very warm. Shipka Pass is somewhere in the mountain in the background.Arrived at T
urkish border at 10:45am. Tim was concerned about the bureaucracy and expected delays. He wasn't wrong. Despite of help from officials, it took us 3 hours. Lucky us!!Arrived at Istanbul backpacker hostel: Istanbul Hostel about 6pm. It is located less than half a km from the Aya Sofya. How convenient.
Calypso vs horse power. Calypso has been travelling very well - hasn't missed a beat yet. (Old city wall in the background.)
View taken from inside the Blue Mosque.
Picture of the enormous Aya Sofya in mid-morning.
Fishermen on the bridge linking Europe to Asia. There was no space left for late comers. Every fishable location was taken up. There were plenty of small fish being caught.
Le is with the fish sandwich makers. For 4TL (less than AUD4), you can have a fish sandwich. It was so good, we ate it for lunch and dinner (Le had double at dinner time). We returned again the next day for lunch and dinner!!A view Asia Istanbul taken from the European side.
A view of the great Aya Sofya in early morning before tourists showing up.
A view of the Blue Mosque from outside.
A view of the Grand Bazaar. Don't be caught by the buying frenzy. From experience, for certain items (eg fake watches) opening price was about 5 times higher than elsewhere outside Istanbul.
View of the Suliemen mosque from the Istanbul university.
A picture taken from one of the many-many spice stores within the Spice Bazaar. A very colourful place, but not something one would buy and bring home.
One of the fruit juice stores. A large pure pomigranate juice (size of a medium milk shake at MacDonald) costs 4TL. A coffee cup size would cost 2TL. Orange juice generally halves that price. For comparison, Turkish coffee in Istanbul costs 4TL - don't know what it cost outside Istanbul yet.
Walked through the Palace grounds. Tulips, tulips every where.
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