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Day 8 - The New Istanbul and the arrival of Ooti
We are staying in the old quarter of Istanbul and Jayne and I decided to go and check out Taksim square - which is the new area where all the shopping, pubs and clubs are. We asked the guy at the reception of our hotel how far it would be to walk and he looked at us strangely and said half an hour. We weren't sure exactly how to get there so we decided to catch the tram. Luckily we did as the walk would have taken us half the day and most of it wouldn't have been particularly pleasant. Walking throughout the streets everyone was very friendly and we made a little old man friend at the tram stop who told us he had been to Bondi Beach, told us to be careful and wished us luck! We figured out how to use the ticket machine for the tram and asked what stops we had to get off at. We had a bit of a false start getting on the wrong tram and we headed in the wrong direction (Jayne then wanted to jump the tram tracks), but we managed to get to Taksim square in the end after changing trams and catching the funicular. Some other British tourists were not so lucky - these ladies had no idea where they were and asked some local Turkish men where to go - they then ignored the clear instructions the Turkish men gave them which resulted in both Jayne and I and the Turkish men laughing our heads off. The first section of Taksim square was awesome with all the food shops - massive meat for kebabs and lots and lots of baklava! The rest of the street was lined with shops which at first Jaynas and I were excited about until we went into the shops - the main shops were the same as what was in Cannes and the rest were Turkish Mami style. We decided we didn't like the area and that the old town where we were staying was a lot prettier. Before we left we went into this weird art exhibition which had all these creepy heads and at the bottom had bottles of urine- it was really gross. We then made our way back to the hotel to meet Ooti as she was flying in that afternoon. Jayne and I were hanging out in the apartment when Ooti messaged claiming she had arrived and asking where we were. Funny story - Ooti had been checked into another room and was sitting by herself wondering where we were and thought we were mean for leaving her - I would have loved it if they had her in someone else's room because that would have been hilarious but she was just in an empty room. It didn't click with Ooti or the hotel guy that there was no other peoples luggage in the room. I called out and we managed to bring Ooti to our room. We went for some drinks on our rooftop to hear all about Ootis flight. Of course there was drama - there was a massive storm in sydney which delayed the flight (Ooti is a very nervous flyer) and then 10 mins into the flight they had to resuscitate the person a couple of rows behind her- thankfully they were ok. We then went to dinner. I had originally planned to go this restaurant called sunset bar and grill which is supposed to be one of the best views in Istanbul - but one if the guys who worked in the hotel asked us what we had planned for dinner and laughed when we told him. He said we would be very out of place and it was a place for Turkish men to have business meetings. So we decided against going there and he gave us some recommendation for a fish restaurant nearby. The people in the hotel love us so much that one of them escorted us there. The restaurant was ok - nothing special though. When we got back home Ooti passed out within two seconds of her head hitting the pillow.
Later
Amanda
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