TripTracker.net - Western Europe 2010, Turkish shuttle

Prologue: Tribute to the SWC South Africa 2010!D-Day: A beginning Eastfield to Istandbul: Grumpyness at 30000ft Turkish shuttle Istanbul by day Istanbul by night Long walk to freedom Lisbon walking tour Discovering Lisbon Exploring Sintra Fado’s night out The rain in Spain falls mainly on my brain A day in medieval Toledo Madrid on a Sunday Flamenco por una buena causa To Barcelona Barcelona! Barcelona!Gaudi in the morning Olympic in the afternoon Chilling in Barcelona La Rambla To Nice A Nice night Relax, take it Eze Monaco in an afternoon Chilling in Nice To Venice Our first day in Venice The attempt at Venice night photos The second day in Venice The last night in Venice The Farewell Frenzy in Firenze Exploring Florence Conquering the Dome Conquering the Torra Lucca, I am your father Picnic in Pisa A day in Pisa When in Rome…Ancient scorching Rome Welcome to Naples (and its crazy traffic)A day in Capri Ancient scorching Pompeii To Santa Fortunata Chilling in Sorrento Back to Rome Aida and the catacombs The Vatican in a flash The End

jnroux

Western Europe 2010

Turkish shuttle

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Jun 21 2010, 07:35 AM

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Traveler

jnroux
Somerset West, South Africa

Journal

Location

Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey

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We touched down in Istanbul at 6:08 (5:08 South African time) and were immediately confused by people transferring and changing from one unnamed queue to the next. We bought 4 visas for $15 each and after moving through a longish queue we went through passport control without any incidents. At the Turkish Hotel Desk (next to Starbucks) we found some more unenthusiastic Turkish people who explained to us that we cannot get a free tour and a free hotel… so, since we have to sleep somewhere, we took the hotel option. After exchanging some US Dollars for Turkish Lire a shuttle picked us up. The shuttle took us for quite a ride… let’s call it a free roller coaster. I would not recommend renting a car and driving in Istanbul if you are not Turkish AND not lucky. I got flashbacks from our honeymoon in Mosambique when working with these Turkish people. Although you cannot understand them and don’t get any documentational prove of anything, you are forced to trust them blindly and pray a lot in the process. Nevertheless, in the end everything always seems to work out fine. We arrived at our 4 star hotel, All Seasons Hotel, in good time. We dropped all our bags off and then the real tour began…

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06/21/2010
07:35 AM

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	50. The End Jul 17 2010, 05:26 PMCape Town, South Africa4 photos Our flight in Istanbul was delay by 1 hour and 45 minutes AND our aircraft dated out of the 70s. No in-flight entertainment, warn-out chairs and very shaky (physically shaking) overhead compartments. Regardless of these things, we were still going home and it felt good. There was a lot of Afrikaans...

	49. The Vatican in a flash Jul 17 2010, 09:56 AMCape Town, South Africa11 photos For our last day in Rome we decided to visit the Vatican Museum, since we did not get to visit it during our previous trip to Rome (refer to Journal entry 41). Fortunately the closest Metro to the Vatican was also on our Metro line and we were “there” at about 8:55. We then stood in the longest...

	48. Aida and the catacombs Jul 16 2010, 02:46 PMRome, Italy9 photos Our first mission for the day (besides the getting to Rome part) was to see the catacombs and the second to watch Aida at the Baths of Caracalla. On our way to the bus station we saw our first accident in Italy (really a surprising first considering the way they drive). I heard a hard sound and...

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