Thats a man...

Our last night in Istanbul we went to an elaborate dinner with Shannon. It was actually a drag show with all men in full drag and it was absolutely unreal. We got all the food we could eat and all the drinks we could drink and boy did we take advantage of it. It was hard though waking up at 6 in the morning to get to the airport. 

Bazaar, Bath and Beyond

Day four

Woke up and enjoyed a grande cup of coffee on Shannon's deck while the sun beat down on our faces. On our way to the Grand Bazaar we grabbed a Simit, naturally, but this time with a white cheese, not mozzarella, and tomato slightly warmed to perfection. Right on the side of the Bazaar is the University of Istanbul. Absolutely massive outside structure with a large tower in the middle. The Grand Bazaar was nothing short of grand. It is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world covering around 61 streets it contains over 3000 shops and attracts between 250,000 to 400,000 visitors daily. After walking around for awhile inside we decided it was time for some lunch. We stopped under the Galata bridge at one of the local fish markets. Its so local the fishermen are above on the upper tier of the bridge catching our food. We had our usual, spicy red tomato salad/salsa and humus with lots of bread and an olive oil dipping sauce. For the main course we got had fresh Sea Bass and crab legs... they were not crab legs like we have here.. they were basically crab poppers with a small pincher sticking out one side, not crab to be seen. Because the waiter liked us we got some fresh fruit to finish our meal off. A quick siesta at Shannon's we headed back out towards the Dolmabahce Palace which had served as the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1856 to 1922. Then we found a fun restaurant on the water and had Nargileh, basically a Hookah, but a very traditional activity here. Now we are getting ready for dinner at Cahide Cabaret should be exciting!!!!!!

cats, creepers and carbs

Day Three

Jet lag kicked in around 6:30 this morning, both of us were wide awake so we decided to just start the day early. We got down to the water from Shannon's around 8:30 just in time to make the island boat that brought us to the barrier islands located in the sea of Marmara. It was almost a two hour trip, the island we wanted to go to was of course the last stop, but the view made up for it. We choose the largest island called Buyukada mainly just cause it was the biggest. Once we got there we wandered along the waterfront until we came along a lovely beech view lunch restaurant. We enjoyed many dishes and also finally tried some Turkish coffee... not my favorite though after the second cup it started to grow on you. Cats in Istanbul are everywhere and the island was no exception. We had a swarm around the table looking for scraps. The island had no cars so everything was delivered by horse drawn carriages, not something you see everyday. Linnie bought some flower head thing that she proceeded to wear all day, we both had large cups of gelato and enjoyed the island atmosphere and sun. We noticed a creepy dude staring at us most of the boat ride home and we moved cabins but he always popped up. After we left the boat we dodged him finally having to cross the street and run up some stairs. We then wandered around downtown looking at shops and searching for a restaurant to grab drinks and a bite to eat. Nothing was jumping out at us. About to give up after feeling overwhelmed by restaurant workers trying to get us inside, we grabbed a Simit and tried one last street. A nice looking restaurant called Kabap. We got a great little table out on the deck over looking the Bosphorus Straight and got six or seven appetizers from humus to Turkish cheese to lamb and a whole lot of warmed flat bread also along with a few more Efes. Now full and happy we are relaxing in the apartment watching the boats go by planning what we will do on our last day.

A new view

Day 2


We hopped on a boat tour that took us along the Sea of Marmara early this morning (around 10) just barely making the boat. Lindsay paid as I ran and grabbed a couple Simits for the boat ride. It zig zaged along the way as we got amazing views of the country side and our boat dodged tankers coming through the Marmara on their way to the Mediterranean. The boat took us to four or five different ports and at the second to last stop that would have been at an old fort at the mouth of the water passage splitting Istanbul, the captain made the decision that the fog was now toooo thick to cross the passage. Didn't look that thick to me though granite a cruise liner did appeared out of now where. So keeping with our motto of rolling with the punches we headed on shore to explore the small fishing village we had been dumped at. It was amazing. We headed through the village in search of a lunch spot, stopping quickly to purchase some honey comb. Beckoned to a restaurant we approached with the mindset of just looking at the menu, not being able to read anything, we decided just to go for it, and glad we did. Starting off with Efes, a turkish beer we also got a seafood crepe that was actually an egg dish with shrimp, octopus, mushrooms and a tomato based sauce, also a pickled root vegetable of some sort, fried muscles and finally a HOT chile pepper spread that was very good but soo spicy. The restaurant had an amazing panoramic ocean view so naturally we took our time and ordered a few more Efes. After lunch we did some more exploring, wondering random backstreets and examining the unique architecture. We picked up some more Turkish Delight and headed down to the water front picking a nice bench in the sun and relaxed until the boat came back. Our simple three hour boat tour ended up taking around seven hours and adding a couple additional hours getting lost traversing back to Shannons apartment it was an all day excursion. All in all a great second day here in Instanbul.