The tour!!!

The pictures are of many different things.  First, me and the hookah boys from our hostel.  Next - the ever popular spirograph that they made as souvenirs (I made those when I was like 8 years old, followed by a healthy dose of shrinky-dinks).  Then Vivvi and the mud mask man, Vivvi and I crossing the bridge from Asia to Europe, and us on the Galata tower overlooking Istanbul, Istanbul the city, a man from our boat ride with a "road block Afghanistan" hat in the Hard Rock font, Turkish flags for independence, the Bosphorus, Elvis with spices and Elvis our tour guide. 

The next morning, Vivvi and I set off for our official tour.  We booked a half day boat/bus tour with the “Hassle Free” travel company that was located across the street from our hostel.  The night before, I had gone over there in search of a guide book –and the nice man there simply gave me his to borrow for as long as I liked.  What a nice country!  We pledged our business to him after that- and we weren’t disappointed.  We were picked up at 8:30 for our tour, and continued on to pick up people from many other hotels also.  We got to the Egyptian spice market and were given a tutorial to the spices and then we were set off on our own.  Something you have to realize about Turkish men, is that they are very aggressive and seldom take no for an answer. They will say things like “you dropped something” just to get you to stop and stick by them for a second.  Then they will try and reel you in any way possible.  They will feed you every line in the book, and promise to ship you your Turkish rug free of charge.  “We will get it all the way to the airplane” which would be quite far for us since we were traveling by train.  Vivvi and I splurged on some “love tea” and that was our only purchase.  We were looking for a particular set of earrings, and since a couple places took credit cards, we were even more excited.  We returned to one place to work with someone who tried to reel us in earlier, and since he was not willing to bargain, we decided against the purchase.  We then met “Elvis” the tour guide (he looked like a Turkish Elvis) and headed to the “same bus” for our tour of the Bosphorus by boat.  Quick geography sidenote – the Bosphorus divides Istanbul and on one side is Europe, and on the other side is Asia.  So, we toured up and down looking at the countryside of Istanbul and admiring the different elaborate palaces and buildings that line the waterway.  It was absolutely breathtaking!!  After our water tour, we left and headed for the underground funicular that would bring us to the top of the Asian side.  We came out to a ceremony that was going to happen, that was protected by armed guards and police officers. (it was the Turkish independence day, so there were enormous Turkish flags and pride everywhere)We got a nice lunch amid crowds of people, and continued wandering.  We ended up going up into the Galata tower which overlooked the Bosphorus and were able to capture a beautiful landscape picture of the entire city of Istanbul.  We then crossed the bridge back to the other side and effectively walked from Asia to Europe in 10 minutes. 

On our way back to the hostel we decided that it was such a nice evening that we would go in search of a beer at a roof top bar.  We stopped at one hotel and on our way in spotted a mud facial for 5 euros.  We decided to check it out, it couldn’t be as bad as the bath experience right?  So we headed down to the catacombs where the fitness center/sauna/salon area was and entered this man’s “workshop.”  He was the cutest little man who spoke very little English if any and he tried desperately to get us to commit to a full massage.  We were both thinking – oh bath, Turkish bath… so we did not go for it – only the mud mask.  He rubbed our backs a bit and sat us in patio furniture like chairs to prepare for our mud mask.  Again, we had no idea what to expect, so we just went with it.  He brought out a small bucket and used, what Vivvi described as a “brush used for staining” (meaning a large paint brush) and literally brushed mud on our faces.  He got some on my lips and rubbed his thick index finger down the crease of my lips to try to get it off, but for some reason that didn’t work.  We decided that the stuff that he put on us was actually the bottoms of the Turkish coffee that we have been seeing.  Turkish coffee is really bitter, strong and like a mud at the bottom… it was quite an experience.  We washed our faces off and that was that.  Remembering why we entered this hotel in the first place (for a beer) we headed up to the roof top.  There were many open seats, but the “good ones” were all reserved – even though there was only two people eating.  So we left.  We found another roof top bar, and we were up there long enough to take pictures and not get served, so we left, and had a beer down below.  We returned to the hostel and had some beers upstairs.  I helped in the making of hookahs this time, and royally screwed it up, but it’s all a part of the experience right?