...it was a cute hotel, with friendly staff.
I informed what all those cracks in the walls meant, and was told that a short while before there was a very strong earthquake in Turkey.
As Turkey was our last country on the trip, and so that we wouldn't need a vacation after out trip, we took it at a lower pace.
One little kitten in the hotel took a liking to us, and was the only sincere contact we had that wasn't after the 'rich' foreigner.
The first evening, I asked were I could go to a hamam (turkish bath, like a sauna but steamy), and the receptionist/manager looked at me with a strange look.
I repeated the question, but the look remained. He explained me that only ahum, certain type of man go there... Not till this trip, nor after it did I hear a similar idea, but I had heard enough to go on a walk by the Bosphorus (water that splits Istanbul in west (europe) and east (asia).
The next day we took a bus (volkswagen golf anno 0, turned into a bus with some 25 seats) and drove to Kilyos, which was about a 45 min drive to the Black Sea.
The sea did have a darkish tint, but that might have been due to the grey weather that day.
The following day I visited the Blue Mosque, and from the tourists we were the only ones that didn't need to wrap ourselves into the provided sheets in order to be dressed according to the modesty requirements. Shoes were also left at the entrance.
The inside was very nice, but completely empty.
The more famous mosque in istanbul, namely the Hagia Sophia used to be a church, but recycled by force into a mosque, so I wasn't sure whether I was allowed to enter or no, so I just skipped it.
I saw the 2 obelisks, with one of them being an estimated 5000 years old.
I then proceeded to the Egyptian Bazaar which is an enormous market, which is mostly open air in narrow streets, and partially continuing through houses.
Everywhere we walked, people tried to chat us up with their usual:"werrdoyoucomfrromm?" To sell us their goods.
It was a paradise for those looking to buy fakes, and I found funny that they also copied brands, that don't need to be copied as they are cheap already.
Time flew, and by the time we were done looking, it had become dark outside.
I asked some locals for the way back to my hotel in the Sultanahmet district (yes, its spelled this way), and I was told it was several miles away. The guy had pity on us (or on himself trying to explain us the way back through the maze), and gave us a ride back to our place in his doorless car.
The following day we visited the Topkapi palace, where just the harem contains hundreds of rooms. They had on display a hair of mohameds beard and supposedly Mozes' stick (less than 2 feet long), amongst other interesting artifacts.
The following days we visited some islands on the bosporus, which were cute, but nothing major. One guy was selling grilled meat, and had the following sign up in broken hebrew:"kasher leyis'a'elim"...
Upon returning to the hotel we were welcomed by our kitten and hotel manager, who advised us to climb to the roof, where we could see thousands of migrating storks fly over, we went on for a long time.
As elul zman was approaching and we learned in the Mir at the time, I bought a one way IST-TLV for 88,000,000 turkish lira, which at the time was $125.
At the entrance to the airport they x-rayed all suitcases, boy was I glad I didn't buy some of the guns in the bazaar...
THE END