Chris and Paula’s World

Haha - 1st of all, the turkısh alphabet has to i’s ın ıt - so to celebrate ı am usıng the dotless one ın thıs post…

It ıs Saturday nıght ın Sultanahmet, the old quarter of Istanbul. There ıs a football match goıng on. Today I had a turkısh shave and a haırcut at the Kapalıcarsı - The Istanbul Grand Bazaar. The bıggest market I have ever seen. Gold, Carpets, Leather, Converse, Turkısh Delıght! It has 58 streets and 4000 shops, and has 250,000-400,000 visitors daily! It was also buılt ın 1455.

Istanbul ıs probaly the coolest place I have been so far. Not threatenıng at all, salt water all around me, lots of shıppıng and Marıtıme feel. If you dont know much about Istanbul, the largest cıty ın Turkey, ıt ıs half ın Europe and half ın Asıa. The seperatıon ıs vıa a channel of water called the Bosphorous - whıch ıs the only connectıon the Black See has to the Medıterranean Sea. So ıt sees about 50000 boats go through ıt per year.. We took a ferry today across ıt and ıt ıs a zoo. Boats goıng every whıch way but loose.

We,ve seen the Blue Mosque, Aye Sofıa, The Spıce Bazaar, The Grand Bazaar and the Museum of Turkısh and Isamıc Arts. More to see yet and only one more day to go.

You can get the best sandwıches on the street - Donners, Kofte, Hamburgers - whatever you want. Today we had a beef donner wıth red cabbage and frıes ın ıt for only 3YTL each - about 2.20 CDN…

5 tımes per day we hear the ‘call to prayer’ - whıch ıs standard ın the Muslım world. Sımılar to church bells for all you Chrıstıans. It ıs quıte amazıng. Thıs guy called a Muezzın calls out to all Muslıms to stop what they are doıng, face Mecca and pray. The call ıs echoed through loudspeakers ın a Mınaret - a tower that goes along wıth every Mosque. Istanbul has plenty of Mosques ıncludıng the Blue Mosque and ıncredıble pıece of archıtecture very near to where we are stayıng here. I fınd myself stoppıng what I am doıng just to lısten to ıt echo throughout the cıty and over the water. Great moment.

Thats ıt for thıs one. Monday mornıng we leave Istanbul to see the rest of Turkey!

PS, Turkısh people are the best. Very frıendly and not too hard on the carpet sell!

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2007 at 7:20 pm and is filed under Turkey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.