Ravens Travels

Okay so if have you read the previous post you'll see the mix of things we saw and how we were being a bit cultured, this is where that day changed.... we were feeling proud of ourselves and decided what better way to celebrate an amazing culture but by downing a few pints, we decided to go to a backpackers pub for the first evening just to see where everyone else was from. We looked up out trusty lonely planet guide and chose a bar called ''Cheers', we had a few pints in the afternoon but as the only customers we left after 4 pints each (approx 5tlr per pint - come on it was in a tourist area so it was over priced)...we decided to head back to our hotel (The Sultins Inn) to get dressed up and head to dinner.Before we left we went to the rooftop terrace to watch the sunset with a raki:

We chose a restuarant called Despinas. The food was amazing, the people were some of the friendliest i've ever met and we were the only foreigners / english speakers there so we just relaxed and soaked up the atmosphere. They had a group of musicians (about 5-6) who moved from table to table serenading each group, this was one of funniest experiences, any time you would concentrate on a particular instrument or singer they would break into a solo performance, to me they sounded very talented..... we were in such a great mood we decided to head back to the pub (big mistake !!) .... when we get there we are the only people again, well maybe we're two early (10.30), we had a few pints and then two more people showed up, to cut a long story short one of them was nice and one kept trying to hit on me, even though I was sitting there with my very tall boyfriend, they had words but I didn't understand it all (they spoke in Dutch ) but I know it was bad, we decided to leave but the barman tried to charge us double for all the drinks claiming we'd had more ( he didn't get away with it though as i was able to point out that he hadn't cleared any glasses away and we could easily count them on the table ! ) .... we left the pub around 3am and headed back to the hotel, unfortunately we spent the next day in bed with major hangovers, damn that local really nice beer...... so we lost another day, it was silly really but amongst the bad I had a great night....

well its about time I used the blogs for talking about traveling so here goes.......

Istanbul- May 2005

We were supposed to originally fly to Istanbul on Friday 13th May via Rome, unfortunately it was an unlucky day for us. There was a strike in Italy so the flight was put back a day (insert much wailing and sad music here !). We finally arrived at Dublin airport ready to fly out to find out that there was a two hours delay, no problem we thought we would have to waste 6 hours originally in Rome airport anyway, we can handle this. Finally we get to Istanbul at 1am to find out that the hotel airport pickup hasn't arrived, luckily my phone had one bar left on its battery to ring the hotel. After ten minutes we managed to get through while trying not to panic or fall asleep (we'd been travelling since 8.30am after all). We finally get through to reception who insist the driver will be there in 20 minutes at the information desk. Great ! time to look for the information desk but Arjan is getting annoyed and needs a smoke to calm down first so while standing outside with all our baggage we notice the desk. But with our luck we see we can't get back in without a valid ticket for that day (they had high security that day, you could only get in if there was at least one passenger between you). Damn, ringing the hotel again trying to explain what happened should have been easy but the battery went dead. Luckily the sweetest man in the world used his phone, rang the hotel to sort everything out and even convinced them to give us a discount for our first night because of all the hassle. ahhhhh the world is great again...

Woke up the next morning to blue skies, wow haven't seen these in a while, first stop is looking for breakfast since we slept past the hotel one but wait whats this, a balcony attached to our room , great for relaxing in the shade, watching the children play and just chilling with some raki or beer.

First stop is the Blue Mosque which was beautiful,

of course i'd lost my scarf the night before so had to haggle to buy a new one, i'm getting better at it, the woman wanted 20tlr for it but settled for 7tlr in the end, i've probably still been overcharged but i had fun haggling and whats a few quid for a good laugh and talk.... on leaving the blue mosque i can hear car racing ... wait a second this can't be right, feeling all religious and now brmmmmmm brmmmmmm , yes it is its a formula one car roadshow....... now this cool, saw some vintage cars racing through cobbled streets with old men cheering and clapping wildly, should have taken photos but was too mezmerised by the mix in cultures by walking two steps........ so after a nice breakfast in a cafe in front of the Aya Sofia its time to explore it,

all i can say is wowwwww, its beautiful, the amount of work, pain and hours that must have gone into is something to be thankful for and reveered...... coming out of this in a daze we could hear heavy dance music as a local radio station was braodcasting across the road from a mobile unit...... this is really a strange place but i like it, its just so diverse.

after this we walked around the streets just trying to get our bearings and just generally enjoying the feeling and the warm banter of shop keepers trying to sell their wares....

more to come.............