Wow, CIBT has really outdone themselves this time...two days in a row with an even more asinine explanation to why the were not able to send HJ's passport than the previous days explanation of "we did not know how to read the address." Today's was, "we did not see a postal code on the address and thought we could not send it." Incredible incompetence. Luckily, DHL can receive shipments in one day to Istanbul and we can go to the distribution center to pick it up. We only need a marginal competence of CIBT to put it in an envelope and send it. Time to get moving to a nice turkish breakfast.
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The food in Turkey is amazingly fresh and very tasty. Hakan was posing here.
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| This is what keeps Turkey going...chai tea |
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| We had great weather on our non-riding day |
It is not a bad thing to be "stranded" in Istanbul for another day. To
be honest, this is a city that deserves being here a few weeks, so one
extra day will do the trick to see some cool spots like the Blue Mosque,
Hagia Sofia, the Cistern, and the east. Especially on a day when we
are a bit "slow" from the previous night's excursion, today's news was
received quite well.
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| The Hagia Sofia...this thing has been here since around 550. Quite an amazing structure. |
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| Doner Kebap Duram...Scott's favorite |
We explored the east a bit to see the vast difference between the two centers. On the way back, we got the best ride possible. We jumped in this "taxi" back to Taksim. If full, it takes about 30 minutes. Three of us jumped in, plus one more girl. There was room for 2 more. The guy driving was relentless. He stopped at every block for about 10 blocks. He then sees another taxi driver doing the same and he freaks out and turns into Kimi Raikkonnen (rally driver but in a mini bus). He was livid. We ended up making it back to Taksim in about 20 minutes. Between taking normal bus lanes, cutting off traffic, dodging police all while trying to pick up fares, this ride definitely made the top of the charts for overall experiences in Istanbul.
Tomorrow we will be traveling east as soon as we pick up the passport...finger's crossed that it all works out and our route can continue.
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| From the back seat of the minibus taxi...this guy should be a WRC driver |
I'm sitting in my Art History class right now reading through the posts I haven't yet read... And let me just say, this one made me chuckle to myself as I read about the bus driver. The ride definitely sounds exciting. Cutting off traffic, dodging police... What a thrill! Hahaha
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