DAY 5 - Uskudara Giderken.......

We were aiming at getting up early today to catch a ferry to Kiz Kulesi. Seyda's dad was waiting for breakfast from us. We all dragged ourselves out of bed at 11am. I think he was ready for lunch by this stage.



We prepared breakfast and quickly stormed out. I went to Kiz Kulesi back in 2005 with Oishii. We had caught a boat from Ortakoy. Since we were on the Asian side of Istanbul, according to Seyda it was quite close from Uskudar.



So we caught a taxi to Uskudar to find the boat terminal and Bill. Yes Bill was coming too. Some how he got twisted into our plans as well. We walked around Uskudar boat terminal for a good 30 minutes trying to find the correct boat. People were giving ridiculous directions.



Eventually someone told us we had to walk to Harem to catch the boat. Its apparently a 5 minute walk. However slight problem - there's construction work, which means we cant walk straight down and we have to do a loop to get around.



So Turkey's bay run starts. Were walking and walking and trying to squeeze throught tight spots due to the construction. Were luckly we didnt get run over by a car or something.



Along the way I spot this statue. It's a statue of 2 hands holding onto a vase i think?







We eventually get back to the Bosphours strip to walk along the water. What was supposed to be a 5 minute walk has now turned into a 15 or 20 minute walk. As were walking along I spot these little kids throwing themselves in front of cars. The driver eventually got the shits and got out of the car to smack them!

As we see the view of Kiz Kulesi we also see this:

Who the hell walks around Istanbul in underwear? Seriously his going to get arrested for walking in his underpants smack bang in the middle of Istanbul.

We spot the boat terminal for Kiz Kulesi. First we stop to take photos:

I stop to take a photo of Kiz Kulesi and I spot some lunatic trying to swim to it. Like what the fuck? Mate it's only a few dollars to catch the boat. Maybe that's where underwear guy came from?

We go to buy our tickets and its a massive wog fuss. Seyda's dad eventually pays for it and we end it. Meanwhile we spot Bill waiting for us at the terminal. We only wait a few minutes before we board the boat.

We jump on the board for a 5 minute boat ride across the Bosphours. It's time for some photos:

We arrive at Kiz Kulesi to realise we need to squeeze through a tight hole to get in. Tugcen decides to be the first one:

We walk inside Kiz Kulesi. Some part of it has actually changed. For example the restaurant part is all new. They now have live music here:

We climb to the top of Kiz Kulesi for a magical view of Istanbul:

The top of Kiz Kulesi was jam packed. It's a small area anyways. We walked around and got some photos before heading downstairs. We figured we should get a drink. Only when we arrived to the bar, there was no one there. So Oltz decided to jump behind the bar after I screamed he should:

We walked one more level down to get a drink when Seyda's dad started complaining that its too expensive and not a place for us. Mind you it was $10 YTL for a raki.

We boarded the boat to head back to Harem:

We got back to Harem within 5 minutes. We crossed the road to find a cab when Oltz and Bill found a gym park. They started amusing themselves and some how got Tugcen involved in it as well.

Meanwhile Seyda's dad and I spotted a cab and hailed him down. We squeezed 5 people into the cab with the cab driver complaining its not allowed. He drove off when we threatened to get out. Next thing you know the bloody cab driver wouldn't shut the fuck up. It was one question after another - where are you guys from? How much do you get paid? Do you have a house? What are you doing here? Seyda's dad was on the verge of cracking.

We arrived at Caddebostan to grab some lunch. Initially we wanted to get a drink to cool down but some how it turned into lunch. We arrived at a kofteci on Bagdat Caddesi. Seyda's dad was disgusted they didn't have beer. Who drinks at 1pm? Ok don't answer that.

I had chicken shish:

For some reason Bill refused to eat anything. Tugcen ordered a durum ( Wrap). When it arrived she took a bite and gave it to her brother. Oltz took a bite and declared it was disgusting. So Tugcen offered it to Bill.

Meanwhile Seyda's dad was having alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Bill ended up paying $8 for two glasses of Orange Juice which was the same price of my meal.

We started walking back to Seyda's house when we had the first sighting of Nuran Kuafor (Nuran's Hairdessing). Some how an obsession started when Oltz decided to yell "Nuran". The woman heard and came running out of the shop. We walked super fast laughing our heads off.

We got to Seyda's house to find her apartment in this situation:

Ok so it's not Seyda's apartment but an apartment block a few metres away from hers. It's on the verge of collapsing. If you notice the only thing holding the fence is parts of the fence that actually came off! Health and Safety in Turkey is the best!

We arrived back at Seyda's house when Cengiz (Her dad) declared he wants turkish coffee. Tugcen's response was she doesnt know how to make it. I offered to make it but realised that we were out of turkish coffee. So Cengiz quickly grabbed the phone to call Seyda. Seyda told him she keeps it in the fridge. We evenutally found the turkish coffee and I made it.

Now in regards to tonight, everyone had different plans but the grand plan was we all meet up at reina nightclub around 11pm. Turkey's number one outdoor VIP nightclub. Tugcen was going on a blind date with this guy she met on the internet but told Cengiz that she was meeting her high school friends for a catch up coffee. Lies, all lies!

While Tugcen was preparing for her date, Oltz and I decided to go for a walk so I can get my haircut. After seeing Kuafor Nuran this inspired me. We found a hairdressing salon other than Kuafor Nuran and I got my hair cut. Meanwhile Oltz was trying to determine whether he should get his cut or not. In the end he requested they fix the front of his hair.

We walked out of the hairdressing salon wanting something sweet to eat. We were going to go to Mado but decided against it because we knew Tugcen was meeting her date there. The plan was she was meeting her date there and they were going to go else where afterwards.

We decided to go sightseeing instead but first a stop to Migros for some household shopping. Along the way I spotted this restaurant which I really liked:

We walked all the way down to the port to take some scenery shots. The port area is abit quiet. There isn't any restaurants on it. It's just the sea and the boats however I must say Caddebostan is really nice.

We walked in to Migros, mainly to buy alcohol. Oltz liked the checkout chick so I had to take a photo for him:

We still had a sugar craving. We decided to avoid Mado due to Tugcen and headed to Hacibey. We ordered Kazandibi and in honesty it wasn't that satisfying. It wasn't as nice as the ones we buy at Ortakoy.

We checked the time and it was 7pm. Tugcen was meeting her date at 6pm. We figured they would have left in an hour. So we decided to head to Mado for more dessert. We arrived at Mado and headed upstairs. There was no sign of Tugcen so it was all safe. In fact there was hardly anyone on the top level. It was just us and this other guy sitting at a table.

We ordered a baklava plate with different varieties on there. While we were waiting for our tea Oltz starts screaming "Ahhhhhhhhh". I didnt know what was happening until I saw Tugcen walking towards us. I thought she was downstairs and spotted us and came to say hello or something. She mumbled "I'm going to kill you" and walk straight to the guy sitting at the table by himself. Oltz and I were left confused. Her date was supposed to be an hour ago.

Oltz and I sat there giggling when Tugcen and her date decided to leave. Thank god it was starting to get too akward. Tugcen and her date head downstairs. Her date is leading the way with Tugcen following behind. The next thing you know Tugcen stacks it outside of Mado. Oltz and I are in tears laughing. Poor Tugcen rushes up so that her date doesn't see.

While were laughing our heads off our baklava arrives:

All this sugar wasn't good for us and we knew nothing good could come from it. We left Mado and walked past Nuran Kuafor when Oltz started screaming "Nurannnnn" again. This time the old guy in the next shop came running out.

The Kuafor Nuran obsession had started! We arrived back to Seyda's house to crack open a bottle of Vodka called Istanbule:

Oltz and I were preparing for Reina by drinking up. Next thing you know Cengiz gets involved as well on our balcony drinking session:

I prepare some tomatos, feta cheese and olvies to go with the vodka. Next thing you know Cengiz goes it would be great if we had watermelon as well. Before I can say a word his on the phone to Seyda. He arranges for Seyda to call the local supermarket to deliver watermelon.

Within seconds there's a knock on the door. Cengiz goes to open the door and I go to Oltz I bet you his going to make me cut the watermelon. Before Cengiz closes the door I hear him screaming out for me. I was right!

So here we are in the kitchen. Cengiz went to sit on the balcony and Oltz has the camera in his hands to film me. I don't ever remember cutting a watermelon. So this should be interesting:

Luckily it all goes well. I manage to cut the watermelon and serve it to Cengiz. What a relief!

It's starting to get around 8:30pm. Tugcens on her date, Seyda's on her date and Oltz and I are stuck here entertaining Cengiz. I heated up the lasange from last night and made a fresh salad to serve for dinner. Poor Cengiz has no idea how to cut a tomato so I have to organise it all.

After dinner Cengiz throws a tantrum saying his packing his bags and leaving. I dont really understand what's happening until he forces poor Oltz to call Seyda to inform her that her dad has packed his bags and left. Cengiz switches his phone off and sits in front of the TV.

I'm assuming his not going anywhere so I decide to have a shower to get ready for Reina. Meanwhile poor Seyda hits panic mode when she can't get through to her dad. Seyda comes storming home from her date. She brings along Gulumse, this other girl as well as Onur - her date. Gulumse takes over the situation and manages to calm everyone down. I'm still confused as to what the fuck is happening.

Meanwhile Seyda announced she was no longer going to Reina. Oltz got pissed off and ran off to his room. Once Gulumse and Onur left I went to the room as well so that the father and daughter can sort themselves out.

So I'm in the room trying to calm Oltz down. Seyda and her dad are sorting through their problems. There's still no sign of Tugcen.

Seyda decided to go to bed but had a drink with me before she crashed. I kept drinking while Oltz got more frustrated for missing out on reina. Cengiz put on a DVD called gemi. We sat down to watch it with him when Seyda came to the kitchen to get water. At that moment a sex - rape scene came on. Cengiz told us to take it off as it wasn't appropriate with Seyda in the kitchen.

The minute Seyda went back to bed, Cengiz rushed to put the DVD back on. Oltz was still pretty upset about the whole night so I offered to take him to a bar down the road at Caddebostan. We told Cengiz we were meeting up with Tugcen so she doesnt walk home alone. He was happy that we were leaving.

We called Tugcen to see where she was and she told us she just got back to Caddenbostan and that she would meet us in front of Mado. When we arrived to Mado Tugcen was missing in action.

When Tugcen finally rocked up she informed us that she got lost because random cars were beeping at her. She panicked and took a wrong street turn.

We decided to walk towards the bars and ended up stopping at Kahve Evi (Coffee House). The kitchen was closed. Tugcen kept asking if they had this or that and the guy kept saying the kitchen is closed. I dont think she understood the concept of the kitchen is closed.

One disgusted Tugcen:

NV enjoying his midnight coffee:

We practically got kicked out of the coffee house as they wanted to shut the shop. We decided to head into this pub looking venue. This place was pretty funky with random advertisments placed on the walls, pool tables spread out with a cute courtyard to sit in.

For some reason instead of ordering beer we ordered tomato soup because we were hungry. While waiting for the soup we decided to take some pics:

Meanwhile on my right was an Ad featuring Tugcen:

Tugcens swim suit appears everywhere...

Meanwhile our yummy looking tomato soup arrives:

After our soup we decide to hit the Nargile:

I decide to head to the toilet and when I return both Tugcen and Olts are in tears from laughing their heads off:

I thought they were high on the Nargile but the story follows that while I was away Oltz let a really big one rip and everyone turned around thinking it was Tugcen that farted. Tugcen's face was red from embarrassment.

When we all calmed down we decided to head back home since it was past 3am. God we told Cengiz we were picking Tugcen up like 4hrs ago. We arrive back at the apartment to sneak inside. Cengiz was snoring on the couch so we slowly took our shoes off and headed to our bedrooms...

DAY 4 - Istanbul - The Turkish Islands

The draft plan for today was to go to the Turkish Islands. We wanted to drop by a few of them as Tugcen and I have seen Princes Island before. Since we slept at 5am, getting up early was a challenge.

Oltz woke me up at 10am to get up for the Islands. I think I screamed at him and told him to go back to bed. Poor kid! Eventually I was the last one out of bed except for Seyda. She couldn't get up for work today so she called in sick.

We had breakfast and prepared to go to the islands. Seyda stuck her head out and told us she isn't coming. We caught a cab to Kadikoy ferry terminal. Here we decided to split up. Bill went home to get changed. While Tugcen, Oltz and I had to catch a cab to Fenerbache stadium as Oltz wanted to get tickets to a soccer game.

We arrived outside the stadium and made the taxi stop. Tugcen stayed in the taxi while Oltz and I ran inside to buy tickets. Before we made it to the cash register, Oltz found himself a Fener jersey. We quickly decided he should buy it. We approached the register to pay for the jersey and buy tickets to the game. We got told that we have to buy them from Biletix (Which is Turkey's ticketek). There's one around the corner from the stadium apparently.

So Oltz pays for the jersey and we storm out of the shop running to Biletix. Meanwhile Tugcen's still waiting in the taxi. We stormed up to the window of Biletix and demanded 2 tickets to tonight's game. This is when Oltz realised he doesn't have enough money to pay for the tickets because he just spent the money on the jersey. So I have to fund this adventure for him.

We rush back to the taxi to see a very disgusted Tugcen. The taxi storms off back to the ferry terminal. You see there are only a few ferries to the islands a day. It takes close to 2 hours to get to them. This is the last ferry for the day.

We jump off the taxi and race to the gates to catch the ferry. Meanwhile Bill is still missing in action. The ferry is starting to board and they will lock the gate down in a second if he doesn't hurry up. We see Bill running towards us from a distance and luckily he just makes it.

We board the ferry and we spend the next 2 hours standing on the ferry because there is no seats left due to fuckin Bill running late. The entire trip we listened to Bill's divorce story again. Eventually we found seats to sit down in. Just when I got comfortable I gave my seat to an old lady.

I decided since we were almost there I might as well go outside and take some photos. The below pic is the 1st island:

Another island:

Island from far:

Approaching the 3rd Island:

Preparing to dock on the finally Island called Princes Island (Buyuk Ada):

As you can see its every man for himself. I don't understand why people rush off these things. You have to be careful not to be trampled on.

Princes Island from the boat:

Walking to the centre of Princes Island:

We did a quick lap of the islands centre before buying an ice cream. It was stinking hot today again. Meanwhile this conversation happened:

Bill - Is the fayton (horse carriage) comfortable?

Oltz - It's not a mercedes man!

I was in stiches laughing at these two. We approach the horse carriages to have a group discussion on whether to do the little tour or big tour. Bill was disgusted but went with the big tour for 70 minutes as thats what the rest wanted. I dont know what he is worried about. I think the thought of riding a horse carriage is sending panic streams up and down him.

We started the horse carriage tour to see the big expensive houses:

This little kid decided to get a free tour with us by hanging on to the edge. Bill demanded money off him:

Some of the expensive houses:

Our horse:

You can tell a Greek lives here:

Hope to be my future house:

We arrive to the hill top for a tea break. Tugcen panics thinking this is the end of the ride. The guy has to confirm that were just having a break while all the horses rest:

There's no cars on this island. If you want to get anywhere it has to be with a bike or a horse carriage.

Tugcen asked me to take a photo of her at this spot. Don't ask me why. There's so many beautiful spots and she chooses here:

Meanwhile fuckin Bill manages to step in dog shit:

Many donkeys on this island:

Group shot of doneys. Give me a beautiful donkey!

This photo kills me. It's like the horse has been busted for something:

Mediterranean views:

We head back to the horse carriage and Tugcen questions the tour guy what the tour consists of. The tour guy seems disgusted with the question and tells her that the big tour starts now.

Along the way we get to see some of the stunning mediterranean water views:

The horse carriage comes to an end and were all hungry by this stage. We decide to go grab some food before the last ferry back to Istanbul city. We decide to settle for Kumpir (Baked Potato). We squeeze into a small shop to have lunch.

We leave the shop where Tugcen decides to go get ripped off by paying $5 for half a kg of plums.

We head towards the ferry and notice that the sun is about to set:

We line up at the prison gates. I tell the guys its like were going to war or something and the minute the gates open everyone will run like armed lunatics.

Now I'm not kidding the second those gates open, everyone ran for their lives. Oltz got caught up in the moment and ran with the crowd. Tugcen and Bill started laughing their heads off and nearly got trampled on. In situations like this you need to run otherwise the crowd will stomp all over you as well. They dont accept anything in their way.

We board the ferry and for some reason were all tired. We have naps on the ferry and arrive back to Kadikoy. Bill decides to head home to rest before him and Oltz go to the soccer game. I cant go as I promised to meet up with a friend tonight.

We arrived back at Seyda's house to find her dad here. His been travelling in Turkey for the last few months. His going back to Sydney in a few days so his back in Istanbul to spend some time with Seyda.

Seyda's prepared dinner for us tonight. The menu has Seyda's famous lasange and salad:

Seyda's lasange:

Seyda cutting up the lasange. I told her its going on you tube:

After dinner the boys head off to the soccer game. Tugcen prepares to do maintance work apparently. I leave to meet my friend Sina at Altindamla pastanesi. I haven't seen Sina since last year. We briefly caught up at a bar in Istanbul.

We decided to grab coffee at Kahve Dunyasi (Coffee World). This is like Turkey's Max Brenner. We ordered fondu and coffee while catching up on the previous year.

Making Sina pose for my photos: