Day #57 - Istanbul

Covered Bazaar entrance

Looking into Asia from my balcony

Streets of Istanbul

Another entrance into Covered Bazaar

Outdoor dining

Monday, May 10th

I didn't get to experience much of this day because of the 8 hour time increase from St. Louis. I arrived into Istanbul around 4:30pm. I got to my hotel about 6:00pm after going through passport control. Turkey requires a VISA. I had to pay $20 to get a temporary VISA before entering the country. It's nice how they do this. No initial paperwork or anything, you just pay when you get there. Hundreds of people were in line - I'd say this is a nice add-on to the Turkish economy. Who knows how much money they get daily from this fee.

I'm staying at the same hotel I stayed in before I left - Star Holiday Hotel. It's nothing great - but the location is unbelievable. I took some pictures out the balcony next to my room. After I checked in, I decided to go and get some dinner and then walk over to the Covered Bazaar (Kapali Carsi). This is a covered shopping mall that spans over 50 acres. It crosses 65 streets and has over 4,000 shops and restaurants. If you like to haggle over prices, this is your spot. I have to be in the right mood to do this. It's good fun to walk around with your buddies and see who can get the best prices. If you want to work on your negotiation skills - this is the place.

I then walked around the streets some before calling it an early night. 8pm on a Monday night and the streets were packed. I took a couple pictures to get the feel. There's so many outside shops and restaurants, it's a good place. I signed up for a tour tomorrow. I've been meaning to get to the Asian side of the city and take a cruise up the Bosphorus - tomorrow I'll make that happen.

I got about 4 hours of sleep on the flights over -- I need to recover some of these right now. Until tomorrow.