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APRIL
2001 - PART 2
Our
target for Thursday? Topkapi Palace. Many people had told us it would take a
day to go through it but we all knew that after walking for a couple of
hours we have enough and have to leave no matter how great it is.
I'm
not saying it wasn't nice but I'm not into examining china, plates or
sultan's wardrobe. However, the gardens were great. As you can see from the
pictures the weather was like in summer and all the Arabic buildings look so
beautiful together with the green. We walked a bit, took some pics and
started thinking what to do next. If you've read all my journals you
remember we took a cruise the first time when I was in Istanbul. It was my
suggestion and the guys were for it.
Quick
lunch and head for the port. I don't know why but I love bargaining with
Turkish people. I like when they do like I'm crazy when I say a price which is a
quarter of what they said. In Grand Bazaar I bought a pair of jeans. I wear
only Italian jeans or Levi's 501's and since they had fake 501's I wanted to
buy them. 40 Dollars from the beginning and I bought them for 10. They go:
"My friend, good quality, 501, I bought them for 20 Dollars, my friend,
gimme more." "10 USD" "Gimme a bit more." "OK,
10 Dollars 50 cents." "My friend, are you crazy?" "OK,
I'm leaving and I'll buy it somewhere else." After leaving for a couple
of times you get it.
I
was preparing for bargaining for the cruise price. He said 45 Dollars for 3
or us. 2 hour cruise. No, we'll give you 10 together but we agreed we'd pay
15 for all of us. When you say that you're not interested any longer they'll
start decreasing the price. Alright, deal. We're leaving in 15 minutes. The
cruise is perfect, great sunny weather and a cool breeze cools you down a
bit. I'm starting thinking about sunburn since it looks like optimal
conditions for getting sunburnt. So, I'm going downstairs to hide in a
shade. Aftern an hour we're stopping on the other - Asian - side and we see
many people who want to get on the boat. It's like a boat for 50 people
maximum and if all of them get here we'll be in trouble. We're going
upstairs and waiting for the people.
Suddenly
a fat Arabic woman climbs upstairs and sits next to me. I'm
"excited" because I can't move and I'm sitting with my shoulders
touching my chin. The upper deck is full and we're leaving. It doesn't look
good! The boat is leaning and people keep standing up and sitting down to
help to keep balance. Once it looks we'll end up in water. Fortunately, the
captain is coming upstairs and telling the youngsters to go downstairs and
the boat is steady again.
I
think the fat lady that sits next to me is gonna be sick. I'm not the only
one who thinks so and an Italian guy sitting from the other side stands up.
I can't believe that even though she knows she's seasick she wants to sit
upstairs. Whatever. We're about to anchor and the lady calls her husband
who's sitting with other Turks. She's bringing up. I'm immediately leaving
for downstairs because it's not one of the things I enjoy watching.
That
night we're again in the restaurant playing the guitars (and I also keep
sending sms to my girlfriend between songs :-) Last night there was a group
of 2 black guys and a white guy there and they loved it there so they came
again. We got to know that he is said to sing very well. He agrees on
singing Hello by Lionel Richie and I Just Called To Say I Love You by Stevie
Wonder. After few seconds I can see people who sit in other restaurants
stopping eating and some of them are coming to our restaurant. I have a
goose-flesh. Gosh, I haven't played with anyone who sings that well. He told
us that he's a financial officer in NY but also a singer and he released a
couple of CD's. By the way, you can hear some bits from his CD on cdbaby.com
and you search for him - Tommy Harrell. Anyway, there was also another guy
who's a guitarist in Nashville and he played some great blues.
I'm
going for a walk at night and the streets are empty which is strange and I'm
enjoying watching Blue Mosque and Higha Sofia at night. I'm getting to bed
after 1 a.m.
On
Friday we want to go some final shopping in Taksim, see the Prince Mosque
which is actually next to our hotel and an ancient aquaduct. On Friday Milos
broke a rule - he took leather shoes for a walk. Every 50 m there were
people shouting: "Shoe Shine!" and try to polish his shining
shoes.
We
all felt very tired on Friday and thought just about being home. I'm still
thinking about going to India maybe next summer through Turkey, Iran and
Pakistan but I don't know if I can stand the Arabic thing for longer than a
week.
Anyway,
what to say to sum it up? I enjoyed it there very much and I don't think
it's my last visit to Istanbul so wait for me. I'll be back!
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