Into Istanbul

The flight to Istanbul was pretty uneventful. Always a good thing when you take to the skies and need to sleep along the way. When I got to Turkey, there was a slight snag though. I had booked a shared shuttle to take me from the airport to the hostel. So, the driver flagged me down along with a old British couple. They were irate. They were staying at the four seasons and paid lots of money to ensure that they had a private car to their hotel. Would they think of not worrying about it too much since it wouldn't take any extra time (if they were dropped off first) and then they could just get the hotel to reimburse them? There was more than enough room in the car. Absolutely not. I couldn't come in the car. They didn't know me and thus didn't trust me. Self-righteous pricks! I didn't say that last part :-). After a good 15 min of two old fogies bitching and complaining at the driver, he decided that it would just be easier to get a separate taxi for me at the same price. So off I went although it did end up costing me an extra 5 euros because the taxi driver claimed he didn't have any change, even a 5 lira note, which is what I asked for. Oh well. Oh and ironically, it turns out that the four seasons was about a 2 min walk from where I was staying.

After checking in, I decided to check out some of the sights. It was late afternoon by this point, so I just went and looked at the Bascilica Cistern, which was nice and eerie, and the monuments on the Hippodrome. They oldest monument in Istanbul turns out to be an Egyptian obelisk carved out of granite. It was made in 2500 BC! The thing that got me is that the carving looked like it was done yesterday and boy was it precise.
After this, I went back to the hostel to see if they had recommendations for food. Tony, one of the guys who worked there had an even better idea. Him and a bunch of the other guests were going out for some fish later. mmmmm fish. I was in. Although it wasn't for a while, so I chatted with the other folks who were going and we went out for a quick bite a beers. They were two girls from Uxbridge of all places, and two guys from Perth, Australia. They were a fun crowd and we had a good evening even if it did last a little and I didn't get to bed until 2.

Though it was fun, that was a bad idea. I ended up waking up around 5 and then couldn't get back to sleep. Can anybody say sleep deprivation.