Thursday in Istanbul

I went to bed really early. I was so tired. Decided to do a morning tour on The Bosporus. It is the water between the two continents, Europe and Asia. So cool that a city spans both. It was a breakfast cruise for three hours. Pick up and drop off at my hotel. Not quite accurate. I was met at my hotel at 9. Then we walked to the next hotel and picked up three ladies. The guy just kept walking fast until I pointed out that one of the ladies was elderly. And don’t forget the sidewalks are not smooth, there are many broken pieces of concrete, cobblestone etc. he finally stopped at a corner and we waited 10 minutes. Next we boarded a small bus drove about 20 min then a short walk to the boat. We waited and waited for everyone to arrive. And finally departed. There were two tour guides one spoke in broken English and the other in Russian. It was pretty amusing watching people take so many photos on kind of an ugly day. The fresh air was nice. Less smoke than in the city.

First tomato that tasted like a tomato. These trays were on tables but it was kind of gross that they stacked them on top of each other before they were placed on the tables. Oh well

My waiter was about 16, really bad teeth and no English. But we figured out the wine, then he wanted to try some English on me but then resorted to his phone translator. He wanted to know where I was from, if I had a husband, if I had children etc. I used his voice command to answer, then as I was leaving he wanted to spend more time with me alone! Men and boys are so bold here!!

So after we pulled into the dock, I wondered how they would get people back to hotels. I heard my hotel and knew that there was only one person going to my hotel. They rest of the people on my bus were going to a different hotel. I showed the driver the name of my hotel before I got on the bus! Yes I did. Next time I will show him the hotel business card, which I always grab but he seemed confident that he knew where my hotel was. He seemed to go the long way out of the way, maybe lost but, yes so much traffic. He dropped everyone off but me. I actually knew where I was and could have walked home. But no I let him go. At another spot, I came up to the front of the bus, I still knew where I was but he didn’t even look at me. My maps were on so when he was actually going across the bridge to the other side of Istanbul, I went up to him as he was driving and showed him the hotel address. He was very confused. He had me stay in the shot gun seat so he could see my map. My phone now had 6% power. He got me close but not quite but I knew where I was. He just waved me in the right direction. So I got off the bus. Plugged my phone in to my extra battery and started walked in the other direction. A very dapper Turkish man stopped me and told me no you need to go the other direction. I said, “yes I know! that stupid driver has been driving around for an hour and I saw a shop down the hill.” He laughed and said, “Yes crazy drivers here.” So I walked in the opposite direction to see this shop. I looked at a few things and headed back. I took this picture

Look at the man in the middle. He called out that I needed a rug. I pointed to my back pack that I didn’t have room. He could ship to US. As usual he asked where I was from. I said US he asked where I said California, San Diego . He said that he used to live there. He asked where specifically did I live and rattled off a few places. I said Coronado. He used to have a sunglass shop at the Del!! What a small world. He asked if I wanted tea. I said no I am looking for wine. So I sat down with my new friends and had some wine and fruit and chatted! Crazy. I said no when they wanted me to check out the roof top! And yes the wine was from an unopened bottle. When I left, the original man asked if I found my hotel yet, I explained what happed and he knew my new friend Nery. My Mom always says, talk to strangers!

Showered and tried to rest. Not happening. Time to go shopping at the Grand Bazaar and eat balloon bread again. I bought some stuff but again the Grand Bazaar is huge. 4000 stores in a building that is so old. When I was here with my Mom she was in Heaven. I would wander around and then have to find her. Usually that would be drinking tea with some merchant before she bought her next bauble.

The waiters here were very nice. It is entertaining watching them try to get people into their restaurants. And serve the customers and shoo all the cats away. Back to the hotel. Changing hotels tomorrow because I came back here early. And I am glad that I did. I liked Cyprus but I like Istanbul much more.