Anyone been to Turkey?

[dmora]

I'm going to Istanbul for 8 days

I need tips!

[Truckman]

Originally Posted by dmora

I need tips!

Here's a good one: Stay out of Turkish prisons...I hear they're no fun......Ben

[CaptainTom]

The closest I've been is to sell an image to a Turkish Pharmaceutical company for advertising one of their products.

[Hanky]

I think we have a member from there, I'll check.

[Hanky]

okie it took a while here ya go tho
madshutter and here is one of his post
http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...day-riots.html

[dmora]

Originally Posted by Hanky

okie it took a while here ya go tho
madshutter and here is one of his post
http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...day-riots.html

Awesome thanks!

[Howard Barlow]

I went to Kusadasi. It's where you will find the old city of Ephesus. I really enjoyed that. Interesting. In bibilical days, Ephesus was the seaport. Now, it's miles inland. Hope to make it to Istanbul some day.

[Carl Stone]

Ehhhhhhhhh, Turkey comes to me, every Thanksgiving. HTH

[Coogie]

I spent a month and a half of the summer of 1986 there actually when I was 10. I'm guessing that in 24 years some things may have changed, but here are a few things I remember that are probably still around.

Food: in every corner they used to have shaved meat sandwich shops (you know with a big slab of meat turning and roasting while he'd shave off the outer edges). For the price of what amounted to 10 cents in american money back then, you'd get a huge sandwich. It's a far better value than the tourist trap type restaurants that would end up costing you like 50 cents. You guys think I'm joking but at the time you'd need like 80 lira for every dollar and 80 lira could buy you a lot of stuff.

Scenery...just hop on a bus and go see the city. Lots of bazaars, old buildings, old cemeteries etc. to photograph. From what I remember there was this really ugly black dirty river in one side of town...nothing to see there. Again I was 10 so I don't remember exactly, but on the other side of town they had a really awsome river (or it could have been part of the Mediterranean Sea) that had all these awsome little commuter boats you could ride to get to the other side of the city and all it took was a token which cost the same as that sandwich (god i miss those).

For a little more, they have boat rides that take you to little islands and such too. If only our family had remembered to bring the camera with us. I guess I kind of see their point because you can't trust the locals as far as you can throw them (no offense to anybody), but the city is a giant tourist trap.

On every street corner they're trying to sell you something or pull something over your eyes. I think it's partially because their neighbor Iran doesn't need a visa to go there so it's a big tourist location for Iranians who want to get their alcohol and strippers on or for some lucky ones get the hell out of there all together so don't be too trusting.

Favorite memory:
under our hotel (we were there longer than expected so our hotel was pretty cheap) there was a bar that had some video games - mostly River Raid (classic atari) so I'd be there a lot to play the game and waste money. There were also some young girls that would hang out at that bar and I'd chit chat with one much to the chagrin of one of the guys there. To this day I have no idea why he'd always be pissed at me for talking to that girl because I was 10 and she must have been like 18 or something. come to think of it, a lot of things didn't make sense about that place.

hope this helps!

[Carl Stone]

Originally Posted by dmora

I'm going to Istanbul for 8 days

I need tips!

"Istanbul was Constantinople, now.....why did Constantinople get the works? That's nobodies business but the Turks!"

[dmora]

Hahahah sounds like you c0ckblocked some dudes looking for professional ladies!!
I'm a pretty good traveler and on top of me being 6'3" 250 lbs I'm bigger than most Europeans as I look like a rugby player... I'm not too concerned about swindlers but I know they abound.

Only thing that worries me if I might get mugged or lost and be unable to communicate.
I hacked my iPhone so it should work international with a local sim card. (blackweather)
I'm not sure if I should carry more than 25$ USD/~65$ YTL on me per day.

Thanks for the info. :)

Originally Posted by Coogie

I spent a month and a half of the summer of 1986 there actually when I was 10. I'm guessing that in 24 years some things may have changed, but here are a few things I remember that are probably still around.

Food: in every corner they used to have shaved meat sandwich shops (you know with a big slab of meat turning and roasting while he'd shave off the outer edges). For the price of what amounted to 10 cents in american money back then, you'd get a huge sandwich. It's a far better value than the tourist trap type restaurants that would end up costing you like 50 cents. You guys think I'm joking but at the time you'd need like 80 lira for every dollar and 80 lira could buy you a lot of stuff.

Scenery...just hop on a bus and go see the city. Lots of bazaars, old buildings, old cemeteries etc. to photograph. From what I remember there was this really ugly black dirty river in one side of town...nothing to see there. Again I was 10 so I don't remember exactly, but on the other side of town they had a really awsome river (or it could have been part of the Mediterranean Sea) that had all these awsome little commuter boats you could ride to get to the other side of the city and all it took was a token which cost the same as that sandwich (god i miss those).

For a little more, they have boat rides that take you to little islands and such too. If only our family had remembered to bring the camera with us. I guess I kind of see their point because you can't trust the locals as far as you can throw them (no offense to anybody), but the city is a giant tourist trap.

On every street corner they're trying to sell you something or pull something over your eyes. I think it's partially because their neighbor Iran doesn't need a visa to go there so it's a big tourist location for Iranians who want to get their alcohol and strippers on or for some lucky ones get the hell out of there all together so don't be too trusting.

Favorite memory:
under our hotel (we were there longer than expected so our hotel was pretty cheap) there was a bar that had some video games - mostly River Raid (classic atari) so I'd be there a lot to play the game and waste money. There were also some young girls that would hang out at that bar and I'd chit chat with one much to the chagrin of one of the guys there. To this day I have no idea why he'd always be pissed at me for talking to that girl because I was 10 and she must have been like 18 or something. come to think of it, a lot of things didn't make sense about that place.

hope this helps!