Wanderlust - Turkish Delight (Part Two)

I feel I need to start this post with an apology to all my fellow Contiki Bootytangers.  I wasn't a very good tourmate.  I avoided hanging out with them and was way more quiet than I am in my normal life.  This had absolutely nothing to do with being shy (shy doesn't register in my personality).  It all had to do with being stuck on tour with one of the most vile human beings I've ever met.  I won't go into all the details but will give two examples.

1. She referred to our tour guide, Ahmet, as Mohammad the entire time (disrespectful and racist, all in one fell swoop!)

2. The day after an altercation she passed the time by putting stickers in my hair and throwing things at me, like a mother effin' child.

I did meet some great people on tour and had fun with them, and actually once we boarded the cruise ship headed towards Greece I was SO much happier, simply because I wasn't stuck on a bus anymore with someone I spent the entire trip wishing would fall down with her hands in her pockets.

Ahmet.  NOT Mohammad.
The tour in Istanbul made me change hotels to the Turkish slums.  As the cab drove further and further away from downtown Istanbul I started to have regrets. Loads of serious regrets.  But then I arrived and met my roommate and all was okay.  The first afternoon LL jumped in the shower while I reorganized items in my case.  She missed this bizarre parade that went by, but could hear part of it from the bathroom.  One of the bright spots of not staying in the tourist zone is that we got a much more authentic view of regular Turkish life, weird parades and all.



The first full day was spent touring Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque and a quick tour and history lesson of the hippodrome.  Then the group broke up with some headed to the Roman Cistern, others to Hagia Sophia and the last headed to the Grand Bazaar.  I had seen all three of those so spent my afternoon walking down the boulevard towards the Grand Bazaar, stopping for lunch and shopping.  





The next day we woke up early and went to the Spice Market.  My original plan had been to purchase spices for everyone back home as lightweight, cheap souvenirs they would actually use.  That plan was very flawed as I do not know the metric system and was way too confused to confidently order any amount of any spice.  Stupid metric system.






After the Spice Market we headed out of town and on our way to Troy via Anzac Cove.  Full disclosure: I could really care less about Anzac Cove.  I think it has very little to do with being an American at an Australian battle site and military cemetery and much more to do with just not being interested in this aspect of history.  I didn't go to Pearl Harbor while in Hawaii for that very reason. But the Aussies seemed to really enjoy themselves and I got to see a turtle so that was pretty awesomesauce.





After Anzac Cove we headed over the Dardanelles into the Asian side of Turkey.



Coming up next on Maury: Asian Turkey and the tour groups that travel it.








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