Monday, 23 February 2009

• The last crazy trip: Istanbul 伊斯坦堡

  We arrived at 3a.m. in Istanbul totally exhausted. The first thing we did of course was sleep. But just as we fell  into sleep, we were woken up by a gush of amazingly loud singing outside the hotel. I was almost scared by this unfamiliar sound. I closed the window as quick as I could. The next morning, we heard this sound again as we were on the street and it was the chants from the mosques being transmitted by loudspeaker all over the city! Hahaha…

  On the next day, as I walked on the street it reminded me a lot of my mother’s hometown in China; the smell of the early developing country, a lot of little shops and hawkers. Going to a country without actually knowing their language is very hard to understand what really is going on, like in this case. We felt very much like tourists. How? Like the tourists in China – always getting cheated when we bought something. Fortunately, we are very adventurous and often jump into the local restaurants and point at what we want to eat. The prices in Istanbul are relatively cheap comparing with Germany.

  “Observing” was our major sightseeing the rest of the time. I observed the people.  They were  very interesting—they way the dress, very modern and some in very Muslim style. But the people were not interesting enough to keep my attention for long. Other inhabitants of this city caught my eye since the first day – cats! There are cats in every corner! Cat lovers will go crazy in this city.
  
  

  
  

  
  

  As normal tourists, we have to visit all the touristy sites and the biggest mosques. These mosques were undeniably  awesome and spiritual; however, as soon as I stepped in, a smell of off-cheese attacked my nose so strongly that I also wanted to have a scarf to cover my face immediately! Where did this smell come from? From all the visitors who have taken their shoes off obediently. Therefore I’m sorry to tell you that I cannot tell a lot about the mosques because I was rushing to go out as soon as I went into one.

  
  
  

  Talking about food, Prince de la Bun surely enjoyed the trip more than I did because Istanbul is a place for people who love extremely sweet things. Prince de la Bun always said, “let’s buy each of them and try together”. At the end, he ate them all himself. But, the open-air cafes and the night views in rain were very romantic too. It reminds me a lot of my home habour in the Orient.

  
  

  So, this was the last report of Sunflower’s “crazy travel” and from now on we are going start another type of travelling. What is it exactly? Let’s wait and see.

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