Day two in Turkei

I got up around 9:30 as I was meeting Tolga at 10:30am. I had another traditional Turkish breakfast (at the hostel) with Sheena (Canadian girl I met the night before). Chatted about all sorts and then I left to meet up with Tolga.

He was with his girlfriend and they wanted to show me more of the city. Also, the dinner was cancelled for some reason, so he wanted to come tell me in person. His girlfriend was training to be a tour guide of Istanbul… for Turkish tourism. She could speak English (but was shy about it) and some German.

We headed over to Taksim, which is the “really” European part of Istanbul. The tram took us to the bottom of the “hill”… then the metro took us to the top. This was a cool metro system, it was all up-hill, and they don’t use a motor in the metro. It is pulled up the hill by a big pulley system. As one is going up, the other is coming down… cool huh?


We wandered down the main shopping street of Taksim and had a look around. At the bottom of Taksim, there was a pedestrian underpass to get to the other side of the road… in here there was a gun market. Was really strange to see.


We wandered back along the bridge, and again through the Egyptian Bazaar. We walked around the city for a bit, then Tolga and his girlfriend went on their way. He was such a friendly guy and just couldn’t do enough to help me :-) He told me to ring him if I had any problems at all… it was a really kind gesture.

Anyway, after they left, I went straight to the Grand Bazaar. This place was absolutely packed to the brim! I spent about 4 hours wandering around, getting haggled and doing a bit of shopping. It reminded me much like China… except they could speak English here and were not as pushy. Ended up spending quite a bit, but getting some really cheap stuff: couple of casual jackets, socks, belt, t-shirt, jeans… all the essentials.


After my shopping, I went back to the hostel to unload. I met up with some Slovenians and a German guy in my room. The Slovenians were heading over to Taksim for a beer, so the German (Ollie) and I joined them. On the way out I bumped into Sheena again and made half a plan to go see the Topkapi palace the next morning.

It was a pretty casual night, wandered around the main shopping street, which was absolutely packed! And stopped in a bar for a few drinks… then eventually went back to the hostel. Once we got back, the Slovenians went off to bed, so Ollie and I went down stairs for a couple of beers and watched Oceans 13.


I was in bed around 4am… which was much later than I thought it was!