{"id":10067,"date":"2012-04-05T03:44:52","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T08:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/?page_id=10067"},"modified":"2015-08-24T17:03:48","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T22:03:48","slug":"istanbul-day-7-part-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/?page_id=10067","title":{"rendered":"Istanbul Day 7 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Istanbul Day 7 Part 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\nBack to reality. We came back to Taksim Square because we both wanted to do some souvenir shopping here at Istiklal street. This is what seems to me to be a stray dog with a tag in his ear. Or, maybe he’s just edgy so he’s got an earring.<\/p>\n

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\nIs it me, or is the sky just not quite as beautiful over here?<\/p>\n

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\nGood symbol of Istanbul, cats EVERYWHERE.<\/p>\n

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\nOh look, Earthling peasants. I am back to my normal world. Bebek was so out of this world.<\/p>\n

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\nHungry, must feed my human body some earthling food.<\/p>\n

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\nCafeteria serving Turkish food.<\/p>\n

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\nOne of the biggest kebab meat that I’ve seen here.<\/p>\n

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\nAh, eating like a peasant at a cafeteria. This food was actually just ok.<\/p>\n

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Time to walk down Istiklal and do some light shopping. There’s a particular store with funny Engrish T-shirts that RF told me about.<\/p>\n

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\nEvery time I see a kebab restaurant, I have a need to take a photo of it.<\/p>\n

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\nFound the store that RF told me about.<\/p>\n

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\nHah, they sold One Star here.<\/p>\n

I ended up buying a tshirt here. It’s in English, but makes no sense. Perfect!<\/p>\n

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\nI found another place that has a bunch of random tshirt shops. I found a shirt that’s a fake Zara shirt with a photo of Steve McQueen printed on it. Yes, I must buy it. My friends RF and SH joke that I have a tape worm because I tend to eat a lot when I travel. Well, I’ve been only eating regular amounts of food on this trip, but other times, I’ve eaten a lot, usually enough for two. Anyhow, I had named my tape worm Steve McQueen. Steve McQueen was the first name that came to my mind when the joke about the tape worm came up. Don’t ask me why that is…<\/p>\n

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\nI mostly liked the brick ceiling here.<\/p>\n

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\nNice old building. It looks like it was a painting.<\/p>\n

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\nI wanted this! The guy quoted me $1600 though. Fuck that! I would have maybe paid $400, and I still think that would have been high. It was beautiful though….sigh…<\/p>\n

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\nNice parking job.<\/p>\n

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\nTpad, anyone?<\/p>\n

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\nCell phone charging station. None for the iPhone.<\/p>\n

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\nBack to the fish market by Galata Bridge that we had visited a few days ago. SO really wanted to eat the little fried fish again. She was obsessed.<\/p>\n

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\nSeagulls had walked all over the wet concrete when it was poured.<\/p>\n

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\nThe weather was nice, so we sat outside right by Golden Horn overlooking Galata Bridge. This setting would have been fucking awesome by any standard, except that we sat at the Starbucks in Bebek earlier today, therefore, sitting here by the beautiful shore and Istanbul in the background was just “not bad”.<\/p>\n

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\nTons of seagulls in this area.<\/p>\n

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\nSmall fried mackerels that can be eaten whole. Yum! Perfect snack.<\/p>\n

Then, it was a fun time with seagull photography. Our uneaten mackerels made for good bait for photos.<\/p>\n

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\nI think everything looks nicer with a blue sky.<\/p>\n

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\nLots of people fish on Galata Bridge. This guy just got something on the hook.<\/p>\n

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\nWhat he caught. I think some of these people who fish just sell the fish as they catch them.<\/p>\n

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\nIstanbul is amazing.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
\nThere were three boats here with Moorish decoration domes on top. They were swaying back and forth like CRAZY, while all the other boats seem to be calm in the sea. Not sure if it’s because of their design or because of where they were anchored, but they were swaying so much that it was comical. It’s like watching a carnival ride.<\/p>\n

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\nUpon closer inspection, they are kitchen boats!<\/p>\n

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\nHere are the cooks, standing in a wildly swaying boat, cooking all perfectly composed. They were making fish sandwiches, and they would hand the finished sandwiches to the server standing at the shore to deliver to customers. Not sure if all the cooking is done on the boat as a loophole to bypass kitchen regulations. It was a very cool and unique sight.<\/p>\n

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\nIn this area, the touts for the fish sandwiches were also the most aggressive out of anywhere we’ve been in Istanbul. SO said that she felt unsafe and uncomfortable in this area. I just laughed. This would have been a joke in India!!<\/p>\n

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\nKebabs!<\/p>\n

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\nWe’ve had a long day, time to head back to hotel.<\/p>\n

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\nChaotic toys spinning and moving in all directions. Slowed the shutter speed down to show that all blurry objects were moving.<\/p>\n

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\nOh wait, it’s not time to head back to hotel yet. SO wanted to buy some spices as souvenirs.<\/p>\n

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\nRick Steves had recommended this restaurant inside Spice Market.<\/p>\n

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\nToo bad, they were only open for lunch. Thanks Rick Steves for not letting me know their hours.<\/p>\n

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\nI know these photos are redundant, but I just loved the spices here.<\/p>\n

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\nRose tea.<\/p>\n

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\nI still can’t believe this is what jasmine looks like!<\/p>\n

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\nOhhh, saffron.<\/p>\n

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\nLast day here, so I had to make a quick stop at McDonald’s to see what their region specific item is over here in Istanbul.<\/p>\n

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\nAh, yes. The McTurco!<\/p>\n

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\nThe patty tasted like a mix of lamb and beef. It was just OK. The best region specific McDonald’s item still goes to the shrimp that I had in Prague.<\/p>\n

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\nInside McDonald’s, there’s a cell phone charging station that have lockable compartments. Do Turks always run out of cell phone battery randomly or something? What’s the deal with these cell phone charging stations all over town?<\/p>\n

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\nLove kebabs.<\/p>\n

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\nHey hot stuff.<\/p>\n

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\nDon’t matte wrap your car if you suck at driving.<\/p>\n

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\nKept on forgetting to take this photo. Anyhow, this is what $111 a night gets you in Istanbul.<\/p>\n

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Went to eat at Doy Doy’s for our dinner in Istanbul. It was a long day, and we were just too tired to go somewhere far to eat.<\/p>\n

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\nHey babe! Taken from the roof top of Doy Doy. I am really going to miss seeing the Blue Mosque everyday. Til next time. I may need to put a photo of the Blue Mosque next to my bed and kiss it every morning.<\/p>\n

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\nLentil soup.<\/p>\n

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\nOf course, mixed grill for me.<\/p>\n

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\nRice pudding. Seems to be a popular dessert here, so had to give it a try.<\/p>\n

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Work Warning!!!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
\nWhile I was blogging away, SO was watching some sort of German entertainment channel on the satellite TV in the room. All of a sudden, I looked up and I saw breasts all over the screen. What’s happening? It was just some regular TV programming a while ago. SO just laughed at me and said that this is typical of Germany to have raunchy adults only shows after midnight. Shit, if I was a kid growing up in Germany, I would never go to bed before midnight!<\/p>\n

To be continued at Berlin Day 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Istanbul Day 7 Part 1. Back to reality. We came back to Taksim Square because we both wanted to do some souvenir shopping here at Istiklal street. This is what seems to me to be a stray dog … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9344,"menu_order":11,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10067","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10067"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29576,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10067\/revisions\/29576"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}