DAY 3 IN ISTANBUL

On Friday morning we were picked up by a little bus and the guide from our travel agency to take us for our first organized sightseeing tour.

It turned out that we were the only once the other French speaking people had cancelled their trip because apparently they had celebrated their holidays too much and were tired had a hangover. That was real nice because our guide, a young man who spoke very good French had more time to answer our questions and also show us other things than on a usual sightseeing tour.



He first took us to the Blue Mosque




There were many people from all over the world with their guides who had the same idea and we had to line up to get in the mosque. Fortunately it went quite quickly




Everybody had to take the shoes off and the women who didn't have a scarf got a scarf from this lady. Men wearing shorts had to tie the scarf around their shorts. I thought they are quiet uneducated because they wouldn't go to church at home in shorts either !



After having admired the wonderful artwork of the mosque we sat there and our guide took a picture from us with the mosque behind.



From there we went to the ancient mosque Mosque Aya Sofya which had been an orthodox church before and is now a museum. Amazing to see this transformation from a church to a mosque ! There were beautiful mosaic works.

The huge marble vase is a lustration urn. It is carved from single blocks of marble.

It took quiet some time until we had finished to admire all this beauty and we were quiet hungry when we came out.

Our guide went with us to the entry of the big "Bazar" which we will visit another day, because we also wanted to sit down. So we said good bye to him, and rushed through the bazar




Here is entrance or exit (it depends on your direction of course) n° 1 and we had to go out at n° 7. There we found a typical Turkish Snack and had a Durum, a very thin crepe, filled with roasted chicken, vegetables and a delicious sauce and then presented like a roll. It was delicious ! the price too, we payed 2 € (1.40 $) per roll !

The rest of the day we spent at the "beach" i.e. on the roof of our hotel with fake grass, nice beach beds and also used the swimming pool. It's so funny to be on the 6th floor, overlook the whole city with all the mosques and take a sunbath !

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

Besides preparing my suitcase for 10 days Istanbul city visit, I also took the plane and arrived on Wednesday in Istanbul. The sun was shining and it was warm but not too hot the perfect weather for a city tour.



But first we had to check in. Our hotel is really in the middle of the town and close to all important monuments and the "Bazar"



Before we left for a walk, we sat on the terrace of our hotel, on the roof where you have a nice view over the city. There also is a little swimming pool.



We walked around to discover the surroundings of the hotel, visited one of the uncountable mosques and looked for a nice restaurant. Finally we found one which seemed to be very nice, but unfortunately it was a real tourist trap, a guy scratched on an old guitar Spanish songs ! The food was also for tourists, and nothing Turkish as we had wanted, so I had a trout.



The trout was very good, but didn't look very friendly and was served without any dressing, a few green leaves, one tomato slice and an onion ! I felt like a cow.

The next day no sun and a grey sky.



I went on the hotel roof to check but it became worse. We started our walk, and then took a tramway to the University, had to buy an umbrella and became quiet wet. It really rained cats and dogs and even through the big tree, where we tried to protect ourselves from the rain.



So we took the opportunity and visited the beautiful Basilica Cistern under the city of Istanbul. At least it didn't rain in there.

We took the tram back to our hotel had lunch in a cute little Pita snack and spent the rest ofo the afternoon in the hotel, we were quiet tired from all this walking. We also had to change room, because we got a far better one on the 5th floor just below the pool.

Late afternoon we walked til the University and a little further to visit another mosque, Dominique likes the architecture and the beautiful artwork in there, and then we walked back and had a nice supper on the roof of our hotel, before we fell half dead in our beds ! I took quiet a lot of pictures, which I will show in another post.

I AM IN ISTANBUL

more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday



The "I" came on purpose ! Since yesterday afternoon I am in Istanbul for 10 days to discover the city a little more. I have been in Istanbul in 2007 unfortunately I had difficulties with my travel blog and I probably deleted the post by mistake a couple of years ago.




I don't have any photos yet, the pictures from our hotel I took from Internet.



These pictures I made in 2007, as you can see it's a beautiful very cosmopolitan city.
From today on I will write a post of my daily "adventures".

When we arrived and had checked into our hotel, we went out to change 50 € each into Turkish Lira. Then we walked a little through the city and also visited a mosque. When I wanted to give some money at the entrance, I noticed that my wallet had been stolen out of my purse ! Somebody had opened the zip and taken my wallet out. It's still a mistery to me how he could do that without me noticing it ! My purse was hanging over my shoulder and nearly on my belly ! Fortunately I had nothing else than the Turkish lira inside because it was a wallet I only use when I travel. I didn't have my Turkish money for a long time, it was a quiet expensive walk. I suppose that somebody had watched us when we came out of the Change office had followed and waited for a good moment to open the zip.

There is nothing to do, and I decided not to let my holidays spoiled for that !

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - ON HOLIDAYS IN ISTAMBUL

Istambul June 2007

I am sitting in the plane which takes me to Istambul. I had been there for a day in 2007 and found it was not enough. I will be in Istambul with my friend Dominique until the 25th, but as I have Internet in our hotel I will write everyday my diary. (Hopefully Internet works !)

MY WORLD - Ostend Visit

More participantshere

When I was at the Ostende Sailing Ships Festival I also did a stroll along the beach and through the city.









The railway station of Ostende from outside and inside



These 3 bronze sculptures are sitting just in front of the station and can be used as a seat



They look towards the habour



there are two others just besides, and the have all the same face



The habour



Along the beach it wasn't so nice because works are going on to be ready for the summer season.



but a little farer there were no works and school children enjoyed their holidays at the sea



The North sea on the Belgian coast looks always grey even when the sky is blue.



A street leading to the beach



Unfortunately in the 70th all beautiful old Victorian style houses were demolished to build new modern houses for the tourists. I discovered this beautiful "left over". Ostend had been such a beautful town, but now it became real ugly.







The church

more about Ostende is here on my Travel blog

WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND ?

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of June 11. You never know if you need an alibi ! If you participate please put the little logo on the top of your post and leave your link.

This weekend was "dedicated" to my forthcoming trip to Istambul on Wednesday where I will visit the city together with my friend and neighbor Dominique. This meant to check my wardrobe and select the clothes I want to take along. Of course I had to do some laundry too.

I noticed that I had nothing to wear although my wardrobe is so full as a drunken sailor, but sometimes I feel like a bird who needs new feathers. I bought some new feathers in form of 2 nice T-shirts and blouses. Just right for warm weather sightseeings.

In the evening Dominique came over and we discussed the last details of our trip and then together with Mr. G. we watched the British TV series "Morse" and admired Oxford.

On Sunday morning I went to a local market in the next little town and bought roasted chicken for tonight. The rest of the day I spent to update my little notebook which I want to take along on my trip to Istambul, so that I can post from the Hotel.

Since a week the temperature has dropped from 25 ° (77 F)and more to not even the half. We warmed ourselves up with the open fire, but it will get even more cooler so I think we have to put the heating on again, now that we are going towards summer and of course it also rains after almost two months of sunshine and dry weather.

WHAT TO EAT ?

I was born during WW II in 1943. What I had eaten from that day on until food control and expiry dates were created in the 80th was certainly not always healthy and therefore, it's a miracle that I am still alive and even enjoy a good health.



Ever since I had to deal with the Bird flu, not only me, the whole world. Poor poultry was banned from our menu and millions of chickens were killed.



Coming next ?



When we had finished with the birds, suddenly the swine flu showed up in 2008 and thousands of pigs were also killed and we feared the poor pigs. So what was left as meat in our plates ?? the beaf ! but not for long because the cows became mad in 2009 and nobody wanted to eat a good steak anymore. Again the same thing happened thousands of cows were killed.

After this animal cleaning, we were allowed to eat chicken, pork and beef again. Vegetables had never been a source of concern.


But now since a few weeks there is a virus in the air, coming from Germany and called E-coli. First suspects were cucumbers from Spain, poor cucumbers were innocent. All scientists of the world tried to find the bad virus, while the population feared to eat vegetables even boiled and panicked again.



It became as usual a big money business, especially when Russia banned all imports of EU fresh vegetables. The farmers went beserk and had to throw there tomatoes, cucumbers and salads in the garbadge. Millions and Millions of € or $ were lost.

Now we can eat our salad and vegetables again because the culprit was in bean sprouts produced in Germany for "Bio" sale !



I really wonder what is coming next.

According to Wikipedia mad cows, pigs and birds causing flu to humans has already existed since a long time. Only we had less media communication, less TV and less Radio and maybe also less international business and money makers.



The truth ???