One way to the UK?

The Wednesday morning (our day 3, but tour day 1) was an early start, where Mara and I were near-close to being first for breakfast. Yum, the hotel (4*) did put on a good breakfast. The only problems with the Hotel was the smelly (yukk) bathrooms (the water smells) and the fact that the advertised ‘roof pool and bar’ and ‘gym and sauna’ were still under construction! Anyhow, back to the tour. We got on the bus and headed up to The Hippodrome. The site is now flat and landscaped, and houses the last three standing pillars of the original Hippodrome; what was once a giant stadium like the Coliseum or a modern day football stadium. One pillar stands at almost it’s full height, the next bronze one is now tiny and missing the meduse heads which used to top it (one head lies in London’s museum), and the third pillar is only half it’s original size and missing all the bronze panelling it once had. Next we went to The Blue Mosque (westerners call it that) which was interesting to see inside of (chandelliers very low to the floor… muslims must all be short) and cushy red carpet. After the Blue Mosque we walked across (directly) to Hagia Sofia which has been rebuilt three times in it’s lifetime. Hagia Sofia was first an Orthodox Church. Then it was turned into a Mosque – the muslim people never destroy a church, but rather take down the crosses etc, and plaster over religious mosaics. Hagia Sofia is now a museum, showing both parts of Orthodox and Muslim faith. It was really interesting to hear the stories about Hagia Sofia, including how the Muslims still believe there was a Jesus and Mary Magdalen and they respect them as religious figures – you never hear about that, usually only hear about Allah and the bad things related to muslim/islam. After seeing the mosque and Hagia Sofia, we broke up for lunch, where Mara had some issues with getting money from a bank and after a quick? phonecall back to her bank in London, we realised it was the specific bank that didn’t like her card Grrr! Anyhow after lunch we met up all together again, and went down to The Underground Cistern. Years ago, Istanbul was running low on fresh water, so a giant underground cistern was built to house water which was shipped in to the city. It now is only about 4 foot deep and home to goldfish (and tourists). The lighting, obviously added for the tourists, gives it a great effect. There are some interesting pillars in there; one carved with ‘the eye’ that is weeping to respect those who died building the cistern, and two which have Medusas head carved at their bases.  Following this, we boarded the bus which took us to the Bosphorous River for our cruise. The cruise showed us many sights of Turkey, and we also figured our the European and Asian sides of Turkey – took a bit of map-searching with a group of people and some constructive arguments before we all figured our what was where! On the cruise we also saw all the thousands of giant Turkish flags which are everywhere – talk about national pride! And we met a group of Aussie guys which we remained friends with over the coming days of the tour. Also found out two of them also live in ‘the Ghetto’/East End, just one DLR stop from our Bromley-by-Bow house!

After the cruise, we headed as a group to the Grand Bazaar, and Mara and I took the guys through parts of it, and then down to the Spice Market to look at foods. We got the tram back to the hotel. Nothing like integrating youself to a country by using their public transport system so we always make an effort to do so! We all had about an hour break before having to meet at 8pm to walk to our Turkish Experience Dinner. Hmmm much to be desired on that experience. There were 160 people there from OnTheGo all together. The dinner entree was nice, a mezzee platter, the main was crap (cold chicken anyone?) and the desert was five pieces of fruit (as in five slices, not five whole pieces). And then drinks were extra, as was tipping the ‘prostitute’, I mean, the ‘belly dancer’ they had on first! Argh what a cringe-fest! Even the guys were embarrased at her antics. The second act was a karakoe singer, past her prime (mutton dressed as lamb) who was singing half english and half in turkish… the third act was traditional dancers. Finally something worth watching. It was really well done, and the costumes were nice, and authentic and the dancers even got people up to learn how to do it too! Then back came karaoke lady, and then anothe rbelly dancer – this one actually knew her art well and was excellent, and didn’t go around asking for money or hanging herself all over the men. The best part of the dinner was meeting the girls at our table (table of 4 and we didn’t get to choose who we sat with) – Mina and Leah are lovely girls and both live in Bristol so we’ll be catching up soon (tomorrow actually from when I’m writing this, now a week after Turkey!). So we makde two lovely friends from the dinner and everyone left pissed off that it had cost 30 Pound each, which converts to 70 Lira each, which is more than what Mara and I spent in our whole week there!

After dinner the place turned into a nightclub, but everyone (and I mean everyone) cleared out! Mara and I along with Trev and Ben decided to have Shisha and upstairs from the restaurant – we decided on an apple one. It wasn’t too bad – I think the strong apple tea kind of detracted from the weaker apple shisha taste, however a good Turkish experience. First and last time I ever smoke though! The next morning was an early, 5am wakeup to head to Gallipoli.

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