Istanbul

We arrived to Istanbul during the evening from a rather easy flight. The shock of the enormity of Istanbul is instant. 16 million people live in Istanbul (thank you, T) and that does not include the tourist that visit on a daily basis.

The city is exploding at the seams with people. Everywhere you look there is people, more people and more people. It was a shock going from the airport to the hotel. I was no where ready for the walk through “New Town” Istanbul to our hotel. The crowd was shoulder to shoulder. My brain could not handle the amount of stimulus going in: people, lights, sounds, smells and cars. It was literally awesome.

I am not doing it justice with my lack of adjectives, one must go there to experience Istanbul.

Below is a collection of some of the pictures took while visiting. I’ll try my best to recall where we were and what Was happening. Oh yes, our hotel was located several blocks from the protests that were held in Istanbul. If you look closely in some of the pictures you’ll see police officers everywhere, well almost everywhere.

A picture by the Bosporus River.

Many of the local men fish off the a bridge near the Bosporus and also off the pier. Many, Many, Many interesting smells emanated from this place. T’s nose did not agree with this location.

Here we are at a local restaurant, this evening was the first evening where we were not “Sultaned.” Sultaned, became a word we used when we experienced the restaurant tourist pitch, meaning the restaurant host would pick what we were going to eat, at a hefty price, and drink. Us being the nice people we are, just went along with what ever he offered, thus this was the first evening where we headed off the beaten path and went into a more traditional restaurant. No more being Sultaned for us. The food was amazing.

Somehow I managed to only have this picture of food and T took this picture. I really dropped the ball in the food picture department.

A shot of the evening life, away from the crowds. Just beyond the trolley the mass of people was deafening.

The street where our hotel was located. Always quiet early in the morning, come 10am and the noise from the main street could be heard clearly through our windows, in fact the first evening L and I stayed at the hotel, we found it difficult to FALL asleep because of the party atmosphere happening along the main plaza.

Ah yes, the men with big guns. The local police station was located across the street from our hotel.

This is following morning as we head towards Old Town to see the Blue Mosque and other great sites. As you can see from the picture the crowd is slowly building.

THE grand BAZARRE

THE SPICE MARKET

OLD MOSQUE

I’VE BEEN A SULTANED

An old Aqueduct

Back home.

Stay Warm,

M&L

Click play for speical feature then scroll back to the beginning for the added bonus.

Turkey: Oludeniz

Before I can write about Istanbul I have to write about the beach and as you can see this coast line is beautiful.

Oludeniz is located no where near Istanbul, in fact it is quite south of Istanbul. (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl)

We arrived to Dalaman,Turkey and then took an hour drive to the coast by taxi.  We arrived late at night and tucked in.  The following morning we awoke to 84 degree weather and headed straight to the beach.

Here you can see L testing the waters. 

 

Our days consisted of waking up by 8am, having breakfast, heading to the coast, which was a 2 minute walk from our hotel and then sun bathing and beach swimming until about 5pm.  L, accidently pulled a tourist move, she sun bathed a little too long and turned herself into a bright red lobster, but that didn’t stop her because we were out the following day and the day after that, and the day after that.

Action shot of yours truly, L and I enjoyed swimming and I spent an entire afternoon snorkeling with the fish, which I have to say are quite friendly.  A couple of times the fish would come right up to my hand. 

Team Mitchell getting ready for the sunset and a couple of brews. Don’t worry I refrained from getting the drunken Mitchell Award…this time around.

The one and only local brewery in all of Turkey, “EFES” was the only local beer I could find, much different if one is coming from Germany and anywhere else where beer is enjoyed and adored. I did look for other beers in the local grocery store and mini mart, but I didn’t find any.  Must be because of their large Muslim population, but I didn’t really know, just a guess.

The Touring Castichells

 

The next morning we went to a private beach, which was much better than the public beach.  Less people and no one selling you something. The phrase of the trip for us was “YES PLEASE!”  Because anytime we were approached by a vendor it was their closing phrase, after they shoved their merchandise in your face, it was quickly followed by them saying, yes please.  But it really wasn’t that bad, just funny, yes please.

Here we have Stanley…

cold chillin’

 

In the evening we head back to where the action was.  First, we’d go back to the hotel, shower and then head to the grocery to get some goodies for “ReD bEEr.”  The ladies were thrilled to find the right tomato juice for their red beers.  It was red beer, peanuts, and Turkish delights,  followed by the paragliders coming in for the evening, followed by the sunset.

 

This guy here nearly landed on the ladies, quite scary.  He nearly took out my teeth.  The picture is right before he turned around and came in for a landing on top of us.

 

These mosquito like objects in this picture are the paragliders.

The landings were so great to watch, we believe that the paragliders in this picture were a group of Swiss.  They did some amazing tricks while in the sky and some of them crashed into the trees.  Which was always laughed at by their fellow countrymen.

The sunset, some red beer and sun burns.

 

T, getting the royal treatment back at the hotel, by our host Moostie.  Moostie really had an eye on T.  A pair made in Turkey. AHHH

 

The next morning we woke up at 7am and headed for the airport and off we to Istanbul.

 

Istanbul

Stay tuned for more,

love,

M&L&T

We’re Baaaaack

Well we’ve been back since Wednesday, but I’ve been decompressing.  

The Lowdown:

Our vacation began by first stopping in Stuttgart for their local October Fest, we all wanted to experience an October Fest like party, without having to deal with all the crowds of crazies that overtake Munich. 

Here you see us walking through the Stuttgart Rail Station after arriving from Nuremberg. 

 

This was the view out of our window in Stuttgart, not the greatest, neither is Stuttgart, but the people were nice and we had a great time while we were there. 

This is one of the indoor beer “gardens” we stopped at as we made our way through the beer festival in Stuttgart.  I believe the grounds housed 7 of these monstrosities, each providing their own local beer.  The big beer you see in this picture was about ten feet tall and spinning!!!

Team Mitchell getting ready for the evening and making plans to re-award me the Drunken Mitchell Award.

 

The evening gets a little foggier…

 

…then the dancing begins.

 

A picture of the grounds where the beer festival was held. The Ferris Wheel in the background is one of the largest transportable Ferris wheels in the world.

The following morning went off great, no hangover and spirits were high.  We stopped at a local restaurant, ate some food and left for the train station. 

Here you see Stanley posing for a picture as we wait for our train to the airport.

 

 

 

 

 

And we’re off…

 

Stay tuned for our next adventure in INSTANBUL!!!

 

much love,

M&L&T