Istanbul (Part 1)

This place is huge. The documentation I found on the web said that there are 10 million people living here in Istanbul. My cab driver, however, said that there are around 18 million people living in Istanbul. Along with 13 million cars that can make quite a mess, so imagine that traffic is crazy!

My travel here was effortless. The flights (Copenhagen-Vienna-Istanbul) were all on time, my bagage got through smoothly and the taxi-ride to the place where my friend Yasmin works was not to bad either. I made an effort to chat with the driver, and eventhough his english was limited we got around talking a little bit about stuff like football (Galata Saray), the city, it's people and his family.

The city appears relatively western to me, and has a clear similarity to other larger cities I've visited around The Mediteranean. I haven't explored the centre yet, but plan on exploring some of the essential sites soon. Yasmin is working on some days, so I'll go off on my own and explore the popular cites in Istanbul (Yasmin seems to be fed up with showing people round to all the city's 'Tourist Honey Pots' / Tourist sites).

Right now Yasmin is teaching, and I am posting this from the teachers' office. She'll be done at 22 and then we'll go for a late meal. 'Fish', she mentioned, so I am looking forward to that - and by the way, I've already had my first 'Shiz Kebab'. It was nice, but actually smaller that we get back in Denmark, but it might come bigger elsewhere.

I'll keep you up to date the best I can by posting my experiences here on the blog. Hopefully I'll also be able to upload some photos!