THE PALACE, THE CONCERT & BURGER KING

DOLMABAHCE SARAY
Nautiboy Productions

We actually made it to breakfast today. I think it’s the first breakfast we made while staying at the hotel. We caught a cab to Dolmabahce Palace only to spend 45 minutes in a ticket queue. I ended up running across to the shop and getting a toasted sandwich while waiting. There was some psycho bitch that couldn’t stop staring at us for some reason so we decided to have a staring competition. Of course we won.

We had problems buying tickets again. They insisted that one of us wasn’t a Turk so Nazli had to pay $15 where as we paid 70 cents to enter. Tugcen threw a random tantrum at the entrance as we entered when the guy asked how many of us are actually Turkish. Tugcen screamed about how it’s unfair to have two different prices. We were luckily we weren’t kicked out by the way she carried on.

We joined an English tour of the palace. At the end of the tour we asked the tour director in Turkish which one was Ataturk’s bedroom. She had a disgusted look on her face and started yelling at us that if we were Turkish what the hell were we doing in her tour group. We didn’t even get time to explain that Nazli was in fact Persian not Turkish.

We had to join the second half of the tour to see the bedroom. By this time we had spent like 2.5 hours walking around this maze of a palace. We were all tired and hungry. When we finally saw the bedroom we caused a scene when we told the tour director we were leaving.

We practically ran to the nearest café to eat only to discover that they only sell soft drinks. We spent another 30 minutes finding our way out of the palace and then fighting for a cab back to the hotel.

Finally we arrived and managed to eat some simit before deciding on doing a Bosphours cruise. This backfired as all the tours were over for the day. So we decided to head back to the hotel to have a nap before Yalin’s concert.

We struggled out of bed and caught a cab to Rumeli Hisari. We got stuck in traffic and started to panic thinking we were going to miss the entire concert. The cab driver decided to take us through the back alleys. We started freaking out more as the back alleys looked quite freaky at night with no lights. For a minute I thought this guy might mug us. It was all good when I spotted the castle nearby.

We ran into the concert to discover that Yalin had just got on stage. We managed to climb up the hill to found a place to sit on the grass and enjoy the concert. Yalin sang for an hour and a half before having an interval. Before the interval he introduced Gulben Ergen ( A famous Turkish singer/actor). During the break people went up to her to take photos and some how caused a scene when someone pushed her. Security stepped into place and escorted them out.

Tugcen and I went in search of food but unfortunately couldn’t find any. Meanwhile we had an argument over what to take a photo of since we only had one shot left. Tugcen kept insisting to take a photo of a Turkish flag hanging off the castle where as I kept insisting to take a photo of Yalin himself.

After another one and half hours the concert finished. There was heaps of traffic afterwards and we couldn’t get a cab. So we jumped on a bus without paying to Ortakoy. We managed to sneak off the bus at Ortakoy and catch a cab to Taksim to hit burger king at 1am.

Tugcen caused a scene at Burger king when a guy pushed in front of us. She must have cursed him because he returned two minutes later with his order complaining about his burger.

Arrived back at the hotel to find Nazli sitting on the roof with the hotel staff…