Endings are so sad
Sep. 8th, 2007 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragojustineSo today was my horrible scheduling heart-attack-moment day of reprieve. A whole extra day in Istanbul, guilt-free! There was a lot of awkward standing around and much hugging this morning, while Carmel presented Nina her card and tip, and everyone started to scatter. Tony and Carmel and Damien were the only ones left in the city for a full day, so we arranged to meet for dinner.
I got to take two of the local ferries across the Bosporus and back, which I'd quite wanted to do. The view of the European side is wonderful (and of course, it's another bit of inner-romantic-indulgence. This trip is rotting me from the inside). The rides are short, but they're dirt-cheap and interesting and beautiful. I ended up by Dolmabache palace, the palace built around 1850 after the sultans left Topkapi. Supposedly built to rival Versailles. I don't know if it manages that (at least, not from the outside it doesn't, though parts at least of the inside certainly do) but it is, to say teh very least, quite satisfyingly ostentatious.
Tram back, cheap lunch, and a very long evening shopping. It's quite an experience to walk around in or near the bazaar as a woman traveling alone- Despite making a minimum of eye contact, I racked up 12 dinner invitations, 3 gropes, and one guy sticking his tongue down my throat. It would certainly take some getting used to, and some reconditioning of your normal impulses toward eye contact and smiling and small-talk pleasantries (and my impulses toward that last are already pretty low, by Western standards). The shopping itself was great, many gifts bought and a pretty dress for me. Much sparkly jewelry ogled.
One last dinner and then bed in my truly crappy hostel, where I ended up getting quite sick and throwing up for the first time all trip- because making it the whole three weeks would have been too much to hope for, I guess. The hostel didn't have towels either, and I didn't want to pack mine wet, so I'm leaving for the airport exhausted, sick, and unwashed. Oh, traveling!
I got to take two of the local ferries across the Bosporus and back, which I'd quite wanted to do. The view of the European side is wonderful (and of course, it's another bit of inner-romantic-indulgence. This trip is rotting me from the inside). The rides are short, but they're dirt-cheap and interesting and beautiful. I ended up by Dolmabache palace, the palace built around 1850 after the sultans left Topkapi. Supposedly built to rival Versailles. I don't know if it manages that (at least, not from the outside it doesn't, though parts at least of the inside certainly do) but it is, to say teh very least, quite satisfyingly ostentatious.
Tram back, cheap lunch, and a very long evening shopping. It's quite an experience to walk around in or near the bazaar as a woman traveling alone- Despite making a minimum of eye contact, I racked up 12 dinner invitations, 3 gropes, and one guy sticking his tongue down my throat. It would certainly take some getting used to, and some reconditioning of your normal impulses toward eye contact and smiling and small-talk pleasantries (and my impulses toward that last are already pretty low, by Western standards). The shopping itself was great, many gifts bought and a pretty dress for me. Much sparkly jewelry ogled.
One last dinner and then bed in my truly crappy hostel, where I ended up getting quite sick and throwing up for the first time all trip- because making it the whole three weeks would have been too much to hope for, I guess. The hostel didn't have towels either, and I didn't want to pack mine wet, so I'm leaving for the airport exhausted, sick, and unwashed. Oh, traveling!