On the road again....
Day 2 of the tour started with a walking tour of Istanbul.
Saw some of the sites we had visited on our own, but explanation from Iśik was added bonus.
We visited a few additional places we hadn't been to as well, like the Grand Bazaar. Grand, huge, an amazing maze of, apparently, around 4000 shops. I can imagine getting lost in there. Apparently, there used to be a school as well. Traders can be quite 'pushy'. They try to engage you in conversation, and a common line is, 'Where you from?' Today, with Lex wearing his usual hat, got, 'Hello Ausie.' and 'You from Texas.' Some apparently know some phrases in up to 20 languages. It is aimed at tourists, and apparently so are prices.
The myriad of streets outside the Grand Bazaar were full of people, mostly locals. It reminded me of the streets around San Pedro in Cusco, but much bigger scale.
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| This shop window displays outfits for boys' circumcision event. Big celebration, apparently, and very expensive |
Driving out of Istanbul was yet another experience. There was soooo much traffic, our bus had difficulty getting into the crowded narrow street to pick us up. Given the amount of traffic on the road, the decision was made to use the ferry, rather than fight the city traffic across 2 bridges. It was another opportunity to see how busy the water traffic here is.
For the next couple of hours we passed by huge industrial areas, and even more massive high rise residential areas, with clusters of buildings of similar design. Difficult to take it all in. We've been told various figures for the population of Istanbul, ranging from 15 million to 25 million. HUGE
It's a 6 lane highway all the way to Ankara. Brilliant given the amount of heavy transports on the road.
We covered a distance of around 450 km, and the scenery changed dramatically, from quite barren areas, through green mountains, along fertile valleys, and stark, eroded rugged moonscape, which was also spectacular. Ankara is a huge city of around 6 million, and we're staying in a busy area popular with uni students, so venturing out for a meal around 9.30pm wasn't anything unusual. Big day!
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