Shutting Down
I am no longer updating slrdiaries.com. For my recent trips to Tokyo, Budapest, Kuala Lumpur and Peru please visit my person website, tinou.com. Happy travels.
Day 4 - Aug 26, 2006
Qualifying. Saturday's all important qualifying, so I woke up early, grabbed breakfast and took one of the F1 buses to the track. It took a good 2 hours from Sultanahmet to Istanbul Park, in part because the bus driver got lost. This also happened to the two Columbians I met the other night. Not unusual, seeing how this is only Istanbul's second F1 race, so all the logistics haven't been perfected.
But otherwise the ride to the circuit was comfortable. It wasn't until today that I saw how huge Istanbul is. I knew Istanbul ranks in the top 10 most populous metropolitan areas but had no idea of its massiveness until I took the bus ride.
Houses, buildings, people radiate onwards nonstop. New construction abound. Also noticed how hilly Istanbul was. Houses built on these hills, packed together.
At the track it was nice that they had shuttle buses that takes you around the circuit, from gate to gate, unlike Montreal, Shanghai and Indianapolis, where you had to walk. General admissions is cheap, but is in the dirt areas only. The view is good though.
It was HOT. Very HOT. No shade. Very tiring. Got a couple of decent shots in, but the heat was really taking its toll.
A nice Turkish man did give me a poster so I could sit on, so my pants wouldn't get too dirty. There are nice people everywhere in the world.
I saw the worst bumper to bumper traffic on the journey back, luckily it was in the opposite direction. Must have been 20 miles of bumper to bumper due to an accident.
Got dropped off in the Takism area. Takism is the Western area of Istanbul. Reminded me of Madrid, with the shops and people. On this side of Istanbul there are no women in burqas; plenty of young Turkish women in Western attire, some very sexy.
After eating some very good Turkish dishes I grabbed some coffee and people watched for a bit before calling it a day.
Day 3 - Aug 25
Friday, Formula 1 practice sessions at Istanbul Park. But it's just practice, so I take a tour of the Bosphorus instead. The tour included a stop by the Spice Bazaar, which was a redundant for me, so I just hung out with the bird lardy.
The bus then took us across the Golden Horn to the Takism area, the more modern Istanbul. The intense heat that made walking painful turned out to be great for a cruise along the Bosphorus, perfectly balancing out the wind.
Just a trip on the Bosphorus is worth a trip to Istanbul. Blue skies, amazing scenery...
It's really hard to describe the experience, the sun, the wind, the birds, the boats. One of the best things I've done.
After the tour I grabbed a McTurro at McDonald's. Wasn't that great, should have just had a real gyro, but it's always fun to see what the local McDonald's has to offer.
Made my way back to Taksim to do some more exploring. The main transport hub was crazy. So many cars and buses. Taksim is very different from Sultanahmet. The male-female segregation that is fairly apparent in Sultanahmet is definitely not present in Taksim. I got lost and ended up in a poor neighborhood, which was a bit scary because I thought I was going to get robbed. But nothing happened, except I got to see some of the seedier areas of Istanbul.
Had enough of Taksim for the day, so I headed back to catch a very tourisy, cheesy show of the Sufi Whirling Dervishes. I knew it would be very staged, but wanted to go for the photos.
The nice thing is the show was at the old train station where the Oriental Express used to come in.
Day 2 - Aug 24
Felt like I was that Lost in Translation movie. Strange place, couldn't sleep... Woke up around 4 AM, lounged around, showered, and left the hostel by 6:30AM. Istanbul was dead, completely empty. The only people around where the homeless.
I walked around the water, making my way to the Spice Bazaar. Even in the early morning hour it was hot. The humidity was killing me. I later found out that Istanbul was experiencing record breaking heat and humidity. Just my luck.
At the main ferry point near the Galata bridge I had an interesting pizza-like bread dish for breakfast. The morning rush was insane. People everywhere. Incessant honking. Insane traffic.
The Spice Bazaar was interestings. Hundreds of shops, selling what I thought were useless trinkets packed tightly in a huge mall. I eventually made my way to the Grand Bazaar. Thousands of shops, selling more useless stuff, packed even more tightly. With all these shops you'd think I would be able to find a wash towel, but couldn't.
Didn't really see anybody buy anything. Just shop keepers drinking their tea in these little glasses, smoking cigarettes, and cleaning their doorway.
Got sick of the Bazaar, so I made my way to the Sea of Marmara. By now the heat and humidity was really getting to me, and the hilly trek didn't help (Istanbul is rather hilly). Along the way I passed through this neighborhood that looked like a war zone.
But once I made it to the coast it was so beautiful. Had a nice seafood lunch, although it was a bit pricey because I ended up at another tourisy place.
The heat and humidity was really getting to me now, so I made my way back. Found a store that sold a regular wash towel, bought it, and headed back to the hostel. Crashed from 4Pm til 11 PM, then back to sleep til 4 AM.
Day 1 - Aug 23
My flight from New York to Istanbul landed around 10:30 AM, local time. Just as the tour books said, I had to pay a $20 Visa fee upon arrival. Didn't really mind, beats taking a day off from work to go to the consulate for a Chinese Visa, for instance.
According to my research, the cheapest and easiest means from the airport to Istanbul is the Havas shuttle bus. They're easy to find, right in front of the terminal, but the guy told me it'd be another 30 minutes before the next one to Sultanahmet, so I decided to take the metro, which is also very easy to find, again, right in front of the terminal.
The good news is the airport metro station is at the end of the line, so there's no confusion about which direction to take to get to downtown Istanbul. The bad news is you have to make a connection.
Got lost making the connection. You have to get off, go underneath this big street, walk across some shops, then over an overpass to get to the other metro line. Eventually found it with the help of a Turkish guy that spoke French, but not English. Should have paid more attentionin French class.
Once on the second metro line it's just another few stops and I was at Sultanahmet, the heart of old Istanbul. Taking the metro was cheap (cheaper than the Havas) and fun, but if you have any significant amount of luggage, don't take it. Even at 11 AM it was packed, and lugging around your suitecase on a crowded metro car is not fun.
My day of getting lost continued. I was completely disoriented, had no idea in what direction my hostel was. I must have walked in circles for an hour, but it wasn't too bad, because it was a sunny day, and I was surrounded by the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia. Here's an artsy photo I took of the latter.
Anyways, I eventually found my hostel, the Bahaus Guesthouse. Location was very good, very close to the historical sites. The rooms were quite small, however.
After a nap grabbed a late lunch at this doner kebab place near the hostel. The guy was very friendly - too friendly, felt like he was trying to scam me. Kept asking if I wanted to go on any tours, and that he can get me anything I wanted, including "sex." The sex thing threw me off, because after seeing all the women in burqas I just had an imagine of Istanbul as very clean.
Later on I had dinner at a pretty tourisy place, but I was too tired to try to hunt down something less tourisy. Across the alley, at the nearby restaurant, was a family also eating dinner, with the wife completely covered in one of those black robes with the full face burqa. I wanted to take a photograph, but it felt rude.
Day 0 - Aug 22
I just realized I already made a post about Aug 22. This essentially says the same thing, but I'll keep it anyways.
Travel day. Travel days are always a mixed bag. You're excited about getting to your destination, but being stuck on an airplane for 10 hours is brutal.
There is no direct flight from San Francisco to Istanbul, so I needed to make a connection at JFK in New York. The recent ban on liquids and gels forced me to check in my toiletries and camera cleaning solution, which sucks since all my luggage was carry-on. But I guess as long as I don't have to check in my camera equipment I'm ok.
The flight to JFk was very quick because I just slept the entire duration. JFK is so large compare to SFO. Had to take the AirTrain to another terminal and go through screening again. PITA.
By 3 AM Turkish time I was on my flight to Istanbul. Turkish Airlines isn't bad. Like many of the international carriers they give you a sundries pouch - socks, eye guard, etc. - to make the flight more pleasant. United Airlines did not give me such things on my flight to Shanghai, and I'm still piss at them.
Had a couple of Vodka tonics since alcoholic drinks were free, hoping to doze off. Lots of children on the flight, which made it quite noisy. Tip, bring eye plugs. The food was pretty good for coach class.
There were a few conservatively dressed Muslim women on the flight. Found it funny when I saw them reading People magazine about Brad Pitt dressed in their burqa.
10:30 AM we landed in Istanbul.
My World
I travel so I can fill this map up (blue, visited; orange, to visit)
Day 0 - Aug 22
There is no direct flight from San Francisco to Istanbul, so I needed to make a connection at JFK in New York City. The flight was quick because I slept the entire way. Making the connection at JFK was annoying, since I had to drag my back from one terminal to another via the AirTrain.
Turkish Airlines is not bad. Good service for coach, got a New York Times paper to read and sundries to help make the flight more pleasurable (eye mask, socks, etc.). The meals weren't bad either, especially since the beer/wine was free.
Sat next to this woman wearing a traditional Islamic veil. But she was reading a tabloid magazine about Jennifer Aniston's new man. I found it amusing.
Lots of children on the flight. Made me wonder if I'm missing out on parenthood.
jet lag
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - I'm back home in San Francisco from my week long expedition to Istanbul, Turkey. Fighting the jet lag - been up since 7 pm.
Istanbul is an intriguing destination. I was fairly skeptical about the old versus new, east meets west imaginery painted of Istanbul in the tour books, but sure enough, Istanbul is truly where tradition collides with modernism, where you literally see religious fundamentalism next to Western hedonism.
My Istanbul photo set can be found here. Day to day account to follow.
Day 4 - Mar 8
After waking up a little later than normal, I took the subway to the anthropology museum. Got lost and ended up at a basillica in the park. Very scenic and peaceful, but they didn't allow cameras inside, so I ended up walking around the park for a bit before eventually finding the museum.
In front of the museum there was a display of the flying acrobats.
The museum is very nice and I probably should have spent more time exploring its many exhibitions, but got bored and headed for Zona Rosa.
There was some sort of protest/march going on and I ended up following the marchers in blistering heat for several miles.
I later found out it was a International Women's Day.
After a relaxing lunch at a rather upscale hotel (for Mexico City) I continued to explore Zona Rosa. Very nice area of Mexico City, reminded me of Europe. But I was still reminded that I was in a developing country when I see something like this:
All the walking around in heat called for a nap at the hostel. After dinner at a nearby restaurant I headed up to the hostel's bar to write in the journal. For the firs time the crazy bar tender wasn't there and the music wasn't deafening. Met a nice Italiano, had a few beers, and called it a night.
Back to San Francisco tomorrow...
