samedi 2 juin 2007

Çekici Istanbul büyü yapmak beni :)


Okey my dear Kelkians, here is this so belated post about my visit to Gulsumita and Istanbul.

Gulsum is the most awesome hostess in the world... you know I'm big mouthed and all, but I'm not exaggerating : I've never been so well received in my life !

So this post is to thanks Gulsum for having made me, and my friends, feel at home in Istanbul.

Istanbul... aaah Istanbul (and not Constantinopla... nor Byzance) ! So many history runs in her streets, so blue the Bosphorus waters, so warm her people, such a beautiful "boobie" city !

Yes, boobie. All the coupoles that you can find in the city made me think of being in a Boobie City :)



Thursday 10th of May : We arrived in the beginning of the afternoon.

We left my friends to have a little nap, and Gulsum and I went to... yeah a Starbucks coffee !!! We had to, for Kelka's sake !

After dinning in the most fancy Kebab restaurant that I've ever been, such an awesome food, we went to a concert of... okey... let's say for the sake of friendship : "flamenco pop" (although it was flamenco jazz if you ask me...). Had lots of melon cocktails that got us tipsy and very happy !

Friday 11th of May : We went to visit Topkapi.

And here's a pic of the Harem :


And here's a pic of the Ottoman Conqueress of the World and two harem girlies :


We also saw one of the hugest diamonds in the world, tons of emeralds and rubies, in the Treasure hall.

We went to see the Cistern Basilic, which has a mysterious atmosphere, cold temperature and very low lightning... so you cannot take good photos there...


but you can take the picture of the Medusa :

beware not to turn into stone !

We visit also St Sophia, which was first a church, and then a mosque, and now is a museum. There are beautiful mosaics inside, byzantinians.

In between we took a pause to relax in the beautiful Istanbul sun :



This is a view of Taksim, the center of night life in Istanbul.
From here, thousands of people roam the bars, restaurants, clubs...
And all are beautiful people !!!

We met Gulsum's friends that night (awesome people, frustrating not to have had more time to talk and get to know them better) at a turkish restaurant in Taksim and went to a bar to have some drinks and start the night.
Here's Sylvie enjoying it !

And then we went to a Turkish kinda rock music club. If we had not been with Guls's party we would have never known there was that club there :) Gulsumita did a little belly dancing, but it was so crowded that we could not admire her talents enough...

Saturday 12 of May : we visited the Grand Bazar :


(I dunno who the guy is in the pic, he was just passing by)

You could probably find anything inside and around the Grand Bazaar... and I mean anything. Inside the Grand Bazaar there were "hans" or "caravan serails" which my friend Delphine told us (she was the Guide keeper and reader) were some kind of special hostels for traders so that they could sleep with their animals and merchandises protected from criminals.

Today those hans are like specialized markets (rugs, textiles, etc...) and you can take a coffee inside the patios in the sun... mmm....

Then we went to Sultan Suleyman's Mosque where we visit his tomb, and his wife's Hurrem (take a look at Wikipedia for his bio and hers).

Gulsumita converted me to islam right there :

(how could you not give in ?)

(Flor thinking : "At least there's no purgatory in Islam's heaven...
Hopefully I will go directly !")


We visited also the Egyptian Bazar (spice market) and got kinda lost (it's a labyrinth there).
To recover from our adventures we went to smoke some narguile, or hukka, and Gulsum kicked my ass at backgammon...

That night we went to a restaurant which had a breathtaking view of the Golden Horn. You cannot really take pictures of the view... but believe me : it was awesome !

After dinning we stayed there to dance :

Sylvie and Gulsumita

The 3 female musketeers from Toulouse

Hands up ! Hands up !

and Gulsum got hit on by the manager of the restaurant who danced some tango with her... I thought he was gay... but had to reconsider my opinion :)


Sunday 13th of May :

We had brunch by the Bosphorous.

"Looking into your eyes
is to dive deep into the Bosphorous"

There's a song that says something like that, no ? Well, the Bosphorous is bewitching. The water has a special quality, it's blue is unique.

After a little walk by the Bosphorous, we went to a Hamam, a popular one, not a touristic one, women only.


I felt like being in the womb of my mother... and to have your hair washed by an old lady who looks like your mom and who puts soap in your eyes is super fun !!! We shed a lot of dead and dirty skin. Then we got massaged. And then we relaxed, having a cigarette. Mmmm.... awesome !

We then went to the Galata Tower... well... by the Galata Tower, where we went to a Hotel Bar which had a beautiful view of the Golden Horn, but also a little view on the Bosphorous. We stayed there to see the sun setting down. No comments are necessary :



Monday 14th of May :

We went to Asia !!! For the first time in our lives !!!

Just before taking off, Gulsumita took us to Asia.

Guess who is who stepping on Asia :



and now I just want to go back !!!

Teşekkürler Gulsumita !!!

6 commentaires:

::: sissi ::: a dit…

oh wow! that sounds like an awesome trip ... with a great guide :)
i am sure you had lots of fun and istanbul looks beautiful!
i should go there some time ...

Guls a dit…

You're welcome, pink lady!!! And sissi any time dear, I'm waiting for all of you guys to come one day or another...

0 a dit…

cool pics !

(yea, i have already seen them, but they're really cool) :)

Guls a dit…

actually frenchy, i have cooler pics but I'm torturing Flor by not showing them...

I'll show them, maybe not today maybe not tomorrow but some day:)))

0 a dit…

gulsy, you are such a teaser ;)

Eve a dit…

Woohoo! Finally the Istanbul post :) Nice pictures!!!! Looks like you had an awesome time!

Eve