After about 24 hours of travel from our house in Lowell to
our hostel in Istanbul, we were exhausted, mainly from the lack of sleep on the
flight and the alcohol in my system that my liver was still trying to process.
Immigration at the Istanbul was a breeze and customs was a
joke, we pretty much walked right by without declaring anything, not that we
had anything to declare.
To save money, we took the metro, Istanbul’s subway system. Luckily we had Turkish Liras and we were able to purchase subway tokens. The trains were very clean; my only complaint would be the body odors from the
guys in conjunction with massive perfume from the ladies.
After walking in the rain to find our hostel, we settled
into our 4 person dorm room that we were sharing with 2 other German
girls. The hostel was clean and the
people were very friendly.
After settling in, the Mo and I ventured out to grab a snack
at Eminonu pier. We like to research our destinations before we go and this
place kept coming up for its 5 Turkish Lira (roughly $2.50 USD) fish sandwiches
in half a baguette with lettuce, onions, salt and optional lemon juice. The sandwiches are cooked in the highly
adorned vessels and handed to customers, both local and tourists at the
pier. The Mo and I split a sandwich as
an appetizer and it were delicious.
We took the metro back towards our hostel and grabbed lunch
at a restaurant serving the average Turkish fast food consisting of Doner
kebabs, grilled meats etc. I got the grilled meatballs and the Mo got a Doner meat
Kebab with cheese. Both meals were
delicious! The lunch including a diet coke, water, and apple tea, cost about $17.00. I’m definitely not used to paying “tourist”
prices since I was spoiled by the prices in Thailand and Cambodia where $1.00
got my a huge plate of Phad Thai noodles.
After lunch, we came back to the hostel to take a nap. We were awoken by our friends Syn and Helen
who had just returned from their day tour of the city. We ventured out and picked up some beer and
wine and spent a couple of hours catching up and exchanging travel
experiences.
We picked up a meat doner snack to share from a street
vendor to enjoy on our roof top terrace fo 5 liras (about $2.50 USD)
After a walking around the Blue Mosque for some time, we decided
on a late dinner at Doy Doy restaurant which was a popular pick on a variety of
travel guides for budget dining in Istanbul.
We got a variety of grilled foods and a Pide, “Turkish Pizza” to
share. All the dishes were fantastic and
the prices were indeed reasonable.
We went to the nearby bar attached to our hostel and had a
round of drinks. Syn and the Mo had a
beer and kept it safe whereas Helen and I wanted to live on the edge and
decided to try to a “Raki”, the national alcohol drink in Turkey. Its pretty much a strong anisette flavored
beverage served with a glass of water to help offset the potent taste.
We picked up more beer and wine and ended our night back on
the roof top deck overseeing the Blue Mosque and Instanbul. What a lovely way
to end our first night. Gotta wake up
early tomorrow for breakfast and our flight to Dalaman to go to Fethiye.
