Day 3

Took  3 hour bus to Ankara from bus station at Safranbolu.
Walked around Ulus district.  Then to Kizilay  for coffee.  Trendy coffee shop lined street.

Interesting shops

Shops in Safranbolu.  Tourist items

View walking down to Carsi from Kirankoy

Both are neighborhoods in Safranbolu.

Panoramic view

Safranbula panorama.  This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  You can see the old Ottoman architecture in this little town.   

Architecture in Safranbola Turkey

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Ancient Ottoman Architecture??

This is one of the buildings that we saw at Safranbola.  Turkish bath?

Safranbola cartoon

Safranbola comics

Using special effect of my droid

Turkish pizza ?

Relaxing with turkish drinks

Taking a break ...and broken Canon DV10

trying out the special effects on my phone camera.  Speaking of breaking...

These pictures and blog were done in my Samsung Charge.  My Canon DV10 lens broke after I dropped it on the first day.  RIP HD camcorder.  The lens opening was beginning to give me problems anyway

Day 2 Safranbolu http://louie-istanbul.blogspot.com/2013/05/day-2-safranbolu.html

Turkish lunch

Pizza and tea with bread.  12 lira all together.  Yummy!

Tea and lunch

Tina having lunch.  Turkish tea is called "Ji"

Day 2 Safranbolu

Arrived at around 7am to Safranbolu.  Safranbolu is known for Ottoman era houses and architecture.  The name of the town is from 'saffron' and the Greek word 'polis' (city).  Apparently, Safranbolu was a center for growing and selling saffron.

Last night in Istanbul, very friendly people helped us find the subway and the bus station.
At Safranbolu, we met a girl from Korea who was  traveling by herself here and in other countries.
Hostel was clean. I liked it.  10 euro per person, 47 lira total.

Day 1 Istanbul museums

Visited Blue Mosque, and a few other famous mosques.  Ate a doner sandwich (like pita).

Also climbed up to Galata tower , built in 588 A.D.

View from tower is shown below

Bought and ate 2 grilled fish sandwiches before boarding bus to Safranbolu.  I think I swallowed some small bones.  I have to keep in mind it's not a McD fish sandwich.

Arrived 11pm at Istanbul

Flight was uneventful. We arrive at Istanbul  at 11 p.m. or so.

There's a picture of Tina falling asleep at the restaurant.

We flew from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Munich Germany, and then from Germany to Istanbul, Turkey.

Nobody uses the US dollar here so far,  speak in terms of the euro.

We ran into 3 guys backpacking from Toronto.  I said "you guys sound same as Americans, same accent".