An Uninteresting Day in Istanbul (Day 56 - GToE)

It's just past 2:30 pm and I'm sitting in the lobby of my hostel, waiting for my shuttle to the airport. That's how uninteresting this day was. Remember when I said I wanted to cruise the Bosphorus Strait but was told that the tour started too late for me to make it to the airport. Well, that was incorrect. One of the hostel workers was incompletely wrong about that point. The pick up for the tour was 8am with my return at 1pm. It was actually perfect timing. So that's what I ended up doing today, but it turned out to be kind of a waste of 35 euros. I suppose it was nice enough but it also wasn't the most interesting. Also, it was pretty hazy today which made it difficult to actually see the skyline as much as I would have liked. Eh, live and learn.

The tour started in the Golden Horn which is a waterway which splits the European section of Istanbul - the Old Town from the New Town. Then it cruised up the Bosphorus passing by all the bridges in Istanbul. At the last bridge, the boat turned and came back to the Golden Horn. Then we took a small van to the top of Pierre Loti Hill (named after a French novelist who called Istanbul home) for some photo opportunities before coming down the hill via cable car. We then rode along the city's walls which kept the city nearly safe for 1600 years (only being breached twice) and then finally stopped at a leather/fur store for some shopping (that was a snoozefest and a waste of 20 minutes of my life). That was the entire tour. See, not really worth the money or time, but I guess it gave me something to do.

I suppose the most interesting part of the day was meeting a young couple of Kazakhstan who were taking a few day in Istanbul. Don't ask me their names because I've already forgotten them. For the wife, this trip was the first trip outside of her own country. That seems incredible to me that at the age of 29 she had yet to travel to another country. That was very American of her. The other strange thing is this is day 3 of a 5 day trip and they spent the first two days shopping. Perhaps that's usual but I find that weird. I don't go to foreign countries to shop. But they're young (late 20s/early 30s). I learned a lot more about Kazakhstan than I ever knew. Oh by the way, the Kazakhs do not find Borat amusing. Hmmm... go figure.

I decided against going to the Grand Bazaar mostly because I have a feeling that 4,000 shops and an untold amount of people would just piss me off. So I picked up some lunch (my final Turk kebab), ate, and watched the world go by the window of the hostel. I leave shortly for Athens, where I will conclude my Grand Tour of Europe.

Feel free to check out my limited and rather crappy Day 56 photos on my GToE photo site.