Relaxing in Istanbul

I arrived in Istanbul exhausted from days of non-stop go go go activity and have been laying low. I spent the first day just casually walking around Istanbul getting a lay of the land and seeing what there is to do. Istanbul, to me, is no way a third world country. It’s clean, neat, organized, and more like visiting a modern European city. As I meander I come across beautiful Mosques, manicured boulevards, park lined ocean fronts with families barbequing, sailboats trimmed rail in the water in 20 knot breezes cruising up the coast, and a busy port with dozens of passenger ferry boats shuttling people to sets of small mountainous islands in the distance and other areas of Istanbul as it sprawls down the coast. While it is a Muslim country I can immediately sense a difference from Egypt and Morocco. Few women here are wearing the traditional head scarfs. There are people in shorts including some women and signs of getting a drink are readily available. It has a charm I can see spending days here.

My friends from Tampa, Servet and her daughter Cassandra, originally from Turkey, happened to be visiting friends and family here and it’s been wonderful to meet up with known friends. For the past three days Servet, a group of her childhood friends, and I have been laying by the pool drinking beers on Heybeliada, one of the islands twenty minutes off the coast of Istanbul. This place is a tranquil oasis away from the city. The only mode of transportation on the island is by horse drawn carriage or your own two feet. No cars, scooters, golf carts, or any sort of noisy mechanized device. What a place to recharge ones batteries and even more wonderful is doing it with local friends. The islands are forested with pines and scattered with stunning homes which I’m sure have stunning values. Tourism seems non existent as the small local village is lined with cafes, restaurants, and goods for locals with none of the typical trinket stores I would have anticipated.

I’m charged and ready to go back at it for the remainder of my stay however I’ve run into a glitch which may have me stuck in Istanbul for a few days. At the outset of this trip I made the decision to go hi tech and one of the new trinkets I purchased is the Kindle DX a new digital book reader from Amazon. However the product was so new, I didn’t receive it before departing. Thus it was shipped to a friend and they subsequently forwarded it to me here. Well, it’s somewhere in Istanbul but stuck in customs and they won’t release it and even my local friends are having difficulties figuring out what is required to get it released. It’s now the weekend and we’ll have to wait till Monday to attempt once again.

Why the Kindle DX? Amazon came out with the the Kindle around a year ago and it has been a revolutionary book reading product. Small lightweight and able to hold thousands of books. It would be a godsend to travelers as bringing reading books and guidebooks in ones pack are the equivalent of packing bricks. More advantageous is on an around the world trip such as I’m doing one can’t carry a guidebook for each country at the outset and has to find them in route. Meaning in Turkey I’d have to find a bookstore which has English versions of books for Africa, my next stop, and in Africa find a book for India the next stop etc. A necessary time consuming hassle I’d prefer not to deal with. The problem however is the original Kindle didn’t read PDF’s which the major guidebook companies sell over the internet. Amazon released the new Kindle DX, which reads PDF’s, just a few weeks before my departure and I pounced on the opportunity to be one of the first to test this new potentially revolutionary product. If it works as advertised I should be able to download guidebooks and carry them all in one small lightweight device. Now I just have to get it through Turkish customs. I am excited about this new toy and will be reporting on it’s usefulness as I go along to advise other travelers as to it’s pros and cons.

I’ve started filming some video for the first time. Attempting to upload the first of these has brought to light a lack of free press. My choice for sharing, YouTube, turns out is blocked by the Turkish government. Meaning nobody in the entire country can access the well known site. How puzzling and surprising for a country that seems so progressive. I’ve found an alternate streaming video provider and have posted the first short clip I took in Egypt while on the river boat cruise. You may watch it here. I’m very inexperienced with video and I’m shooting it with a digital still camera as I don’t have a video camera so this will be a fun diversion to practice and test in a very amateur way.

It’s wonderful to hang out with what is hopefully the first of many friends that will meet up with me during the trip. I have updated the itinerary page on finding flattop with my scheduled flight dates. Check them out and if you are interested in sharing part of this adventurous journey, get in touch.