Tourist in Turkey

Whatever you do , don’t use my blog as a reference for any reason unless you want to do everything the wrong way 😝 when we woke up we started looking at hotel options for our trip to Israel and car rentals to get around . It’s a royal pain in the ass having to research stuff while I should be enjoying my holiday but at this point I have no choice and thankfully my buddy Mike Mazeika has been giving us some pretty good advice about where to go and stay . Super stoked to get to the holy land but first things first .... we have to go see some sights in Istanbul . We booked a ticket to go on the Hop On Hop Off tour called the Big Bus and didn’t realize that it had a time limit ! There are two separate tickets with one for day time and one for evening and basically you end up stranded if you miss the last bus even though they have bus’ running and the ticket was €45 each which is far from cheap but we wanted to maximize our day . 

When we finally left the hotel we decided to eat so we stopped into one of the local restaurants and grabbed a bite to eat . I really wish the people working in these tourist areas would learn not to be so aggressive with people trying to get them to come and spend there money . Please come in my store I want your money in my pocket ... really fuck off ! It’s never gonna change and they will never realize that i am more likely to say no then say yes but the guy at the front of the restaurant didn’t have to give us the pitch because I was going there anyway . The food was ok at best and I wouldn’t even bother mentioning the name of the restaurant since they are doing ok with their aggressive tactics anyways ... when we left we went into Taksim Square to find our pickup point and luckily arrived just in time to catch it or we would have missed out on more sightseeing . 

The bus was alright but really we just wanted to see the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia so if you ask me now I would say it was a total waste of money to take this bus but we did do most of the two bus routes in as little time as possible before seeing these two magnificent buildings and ok maybe the tour bus helped out a bit by giving me more ideas of what I would see if I ever came back but if I were you I wouldn’t take this tour . Just go see Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque is right there with a small bazaar beside it . We visited the bazaar there and no it’s not the famous Egyptian Bazaar which we never visited since it was closed yesterday . In the shops or bazaar we bought our tourist stuff and then ended up in a shop buying Turkish delights and pistachios which also was not cheap and we didn’t even have the time to eat them either so we basically threw more money away .... this is becoming a thing on this trip . Just tossing money at everything for no reason at all ! 

We then decided to start walking to get to a metro train to get back to Taksim Square since our last bus left with tour bus . Yeah they won’t let you on the bus if you miss the last scheduled bus for day trips 🤪, whatever ... on our walk to the metro we came across a bar that looked inviting so we went in for one beer which ended up being 3 beers and then we continued our walk and got to the metro and made our way back to the hotel . We then decided to head back out and went to the Irish pub with full intentions of being in bed by midnight so we can catch our 11 am flight today .....

We had a group of Mexican tourists sit beside us and then shit got crazy 😝 beer , tequila ,sheesha and a $200 bill later with fireworks being lit in the bar while we danced all night and really had a good time . We left the bar at a reasonable time and my Fitbit says I was sleeping by 2:30 am so it’s not too bad ? I also set my alarm for 6 am or something while I was at the bar and Andi set his also ... you would think that we did the responsible thing even though we stayed probably an hour or two longer then we should have . I honestly don’t remember leaving the bar and don’t remember much after this but I do know I have to be awake in a few hours ... hopefully I catch my flight ✈️ 

Another great day in Istanbul but I can’t help being upset about all the time wasted trying to organize the next part of my trip while I’m actually travelling . This trip cancellation really really sucks and I blame that for being two steps behind for everything so far . A lot of time and energy is being taken away from the actual holiday and I know some people enjoy travelling like this but I rather have everything organized beforehand . That’s my little rant and now I need to get myself back into a more positive headspace .... keep smiling and make the most of it !