After the longest bus ride from hell (well Burgas) finally arrived in the massive bus terminal called Otogar to this welcome face. Aleaf is Simin's sister and treated me like family.
Here she is the next day helping me get the GPS fixed.
After that got underway I stopped for my first photo of Istanbul.
Fishermen with poles as long as a bus....
Catch these itsy bitsy fish.
Next the station where the Orient Express used to start.
Turkish delight ( of which I ate way too much)
This helpful man educated me on the cheap stuff that is mostly marshmallow and gelatin and the good stuff made with honey. I bought some of course and he treated me to a tea with them.
Blue Mosque. I enjoyed sitting on the carpeted floor gazing at the ceiling and lights and smelling thousands of stinky shoes around me.
Inside the underground water cistern. French woman could not get me and the Medusa face...come to think of it, I kinda have a weird look on my face.
This is it.
Next the Grand Bazaar where I was pursued with utter abandon even though I had my ipod blaring.
Gorgeous ceramics
And A huge place, easy to get lost.
There are 15 million people in Istanbul...and I found the two people I met on the bus the prior day there. Irfan and Anna Lena both from Germany, although he is Turkish.
After I finally made my way out, I Stopped for Turkish Coffee and did some people watching.
Then on to the Spice Baazar where I bought the hotest chili for Leo. Get ready!
Crowded as usual. The sheer press of humanity in this city is overwhelming. I even did the rush hour commute with the locals both mornings.
All kinds of nuts...got some wonderful Turkish pistachios that Mert introduced me to.
All kinds of spices...they smelled divine.
Next after picking up my repaired GPS I took a Bosphorus river tour by boat.
These pool size flags dot the landscape. The Turkish have every reason to be proud of their city.
If I took Paris, Shanghai and Buenos Aires and lumped them all together, they still could not compare to Istanbul. I completely fell in love with her and decided my trip next year is to live here for a couple weeks (or more) then motorcycle the whole country.
How the other half live. These villas are 250+ million euros.
Musa (my other Turkish delight
Here he is buying me some roasted something or other...
Here she is the next day helping me get the GPS fixed.
After that got underway I stopped for my first photo of Istanbul.
Fishermen with poles as long as a bus....
Catch these itsy bitsy fish.
Next the station where the Orient Express used to start.
Turkish delight ( of which I ate way too much)
This helpful man educated me on the cheap stuff that is mostly marshmallow and gelatin and the good stuff made with honey. I bought some of course and he treated me to a tea with them.
Blue Mosque. I enjoyed sitting on the carpeted floor gazing at the ceiling and lights and smelling thousands of stinky shoes around me.
Inside the underground water cistern. French woman could not get me and the Medusa face...come to think of it, I kinda have a weird look on my face.
This is it.
Next the Grand Bazaar where I was pursued with utter abandon even though I had my ipod blaring.
Gorgeous ceramics
And A huge place, easy to get lost.
There are 15 million people in Istanbul...and I found the two people I met on the bus the prior day there. Irfan and Anna Lena both from Germany, although he is Turkish.
After I finally made my way out, I Stopped for Turkish Coffee and did some people watching.
Then on to the Spice Baazar where I bought the hotest chili for Leo. Get ready!
Crowded as usual. The sheer press of humanity in this city is overwhelming. I even did the rush hour commute with the locals both mornings.
All kinds of nuts...got some wonderful Turkish pistachios that Mert introduced me to.
All kinds of spices...they smelled divine.
Next after picking up my repaired GPS I took a Bosphorus river tour by boat.
These pool size flags dot the landscape. The Turkish have every reason to be proud of their city.
If I took Paris, Shanghai and Buenos Aires and lumped them all together, they still could not compare to Istanbul. I completely fell in love with her and decided my trip next year is to live here for a couple weeks (or more) then motorcycle the whole country.
How the other half live. These villas are 250+ million euros.
Musa (my other Turkish delight
helped me find some yummy pastries for breakfast
Here he is buying me some roasted something or other...
Stopped off here for more coffee!
I told him 3 times we could not cross here, so I decided to make it known to the world.
Palace doors won't open. This is the road where there is a center lane that literally suggests you play chicken or king of the road with the opposite direction traffic.
He took me to a bake potato place where they put anything and everything on it, including peas, carrots and ketchup. YUCK
27 year old Chemistry student working on his Masters. He told his classmates I was a professor visiting from MIT....
Buying Baklava...and it was heavenly....with more stairs...I swear I must have muscles in my butt firemen would be proud of by now...
I asked for hot chocolate...mmm miss would you like milk with that
Took the bus from Istanbul back to Burgas at 7pm. Broke down and eventually arrived in the middle of nowhere at 3am. Fortunately the hotel Laguna Beach was able to pick me up. I was so happy to see Nina waiting for me. 
I told him 3 times we could not cross here, so I decided to make it known to the world.
Palace doors won't open. This is the road where there is a center lane that literally suggests you play chicken or king of the road with the opposite direction traffic.
He took me to a bake potato place where they put anything and everything on it, including peas, carrots and ketchup. YUCK
27 year old Chemistry student working on his Masters. He told his classmates I was a professor visiting from MIT....
Buying Baklava...and it was heavenly....with more stairs...I swear I must have muscles in my butt firemen would be proud of by now...
I asked for hot chocolate...mmm miss would you like milk with that
Took the bus from Istanbul back to Burgas at 7pm. Broke down and eventually arrived in the middle of nowhere at 3am. Fortunately the hotel Laguna Beach was able to pick me up. I was so happy to see Nina waiting for me.
The next morning I woke up at 5am and rode 500 km to Sofia...yep that's right I had a big mac, fries and coke for breakfast...dad, I know I will never hear the end of this.
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