Posted by I’m having a blast in Istanbul, just taking a break from sightseeing right now. The weather my first two days was really good but today it’s cloudy and a drizzly.
I’m staying in an 8-person dormitory room in a youth hostel in the old part of the city (called Sultanahmet). It’s a decent place; the bathrooms are clean and the rooms are heated so I’m not cold at night. Istanbul is a pretty chilly place in the winter for having a mediterranean type climate. Temps are around mid40ish during the day and it gets near freezing at night so I’m doubly grateful for a heated place to sleep. Internet is free at the hostel and I’m currently looking out at the Bosphorus (the sea right by the city) on one side of the hostel’s rooftop cafe and the Aya Sofia Mosque on the other side.
It’s really interesting to see the juxtaposition between old world turk/ottoman (like the Blue Mosque or Aya Sofia) and new… like I was walking along the street the other day and there was an old 17th century relic, a tomb I think, and a bank building that had an advert with Bugs Bunny on it. Next to me right now, there’s a guy with a tiny laptop burning what appears to be bootleg music CDs while other folks are playing backgammon, a very popular game here in Turkey, while Boyz II Men’s End of the Road plays on the radio.
(If you have no idea about the Aya Sofia or the Blue Mosque, they’re on my website. The pic of the Blue Mosque is the reason I chose to go to Turkey.)
I’ve been through the markets a few times. The merchants are pretty aggressive in calling out to customers which is a change from normal shopping. Even in Bangladesh if you say no, they’ll leave you alone. In Turkey they persist a few times till you just walk away a distance.
