My journey that started on the 19th of september from newdelhi-london-cambridge-manchester-vienna-slovakia, now comes to an end today in istanbul, after arriving i was cursing myself to have dropped my camera in slovakia which was not functioning anymore as i wont be able to take take picture os this beautiful city which has some sort of magic in the air, but i managed to borrow an obsolete konika 1.3 megapixel camera which allowed me to take only 28 pics and i have tried to make the most of it. The weather was awesome, beautifully pleasant and not too cold. after a half an hour ride from airport i landed in hotel galata antik which is located near taksim tunel, whithout wasting too much time in having a shower in a 5 x 5 bathroom i stepped out the breathe the magic in the air.
I was famished and my desire to eat chillies was growing stronger and stronger after having the not so spicy or not spicy at all food in europe for 11 days. no more pasta and salad, i could smell falafel, shawarma, roast lamb, mussels, chilles...but i had to wait for that for a while.I started with 'simit' its turkish bread which is sold at every corner in istanbul, it makes a sinful combination with cheese and its quite filling must say, as i was relishing simit and cheese i almost forgot that was i searching for an address while eating or the other way round???
Anyways, will skip the boring part about meetings and work in the office. but would like to mention that for lunch i had meat balls with veg curry, bread for free. Evenings in istanbul look like a carnival on every street, its perfect blend of centuries and cultures, though quite liberal the city is very much connected to its roots and culture. The streets have the best of brands and the most gorgeous women sporting those brands walking through lanes which have musicians communicting to god in trance, as darkess shines in istanbul food and music takes over all the small bylanes with tables laid outside full of people from different parts of the world, sipping tea, beer, live music playing, and the best of food to compliment. Yesterday evening after having a lavish dinner of lamb roast, chorba (soup) pilaf with mushroom curry, went for a beer and then in a conversation about food i tickled my friends taste buds by mentioning mussels (filled with rice and spices inside and then cooked) its heavenly, we headed for a helping of mussels, what followed was desert made of chicken, yes chiken and it was yummy. i was too drunk to remember the name though.
After three full days in office followed by evenings on istiklal street i had to get out today to capture what mani ratnam tried to show in guru in a short time, i cant show mallika sherawat here but still i will try what he hasn't. it was a 5 minutes downhill walk from istiklal street to karakoy tram station three stations away is sultan-ahmet thats where the blue mosque and topkak palace and st-sophia and grand bazaar are, except for the bazaar every structure looks bloody similiar with a different name and size, the grandeaur of these monuments are hypnotizing is say, so i preferred not to enter these monuments, not that i was scared of being hypnotised but i dint want to pay 10 liras as a tourist coming from a country which will let me in to see the taj mahal for 20 bucks. hain na?? after seeing those same to same monuments and a bit of shopping from grand bazaar i stopped to eat a shawarma, picked up three raw chilles to go with it and as the chillies dissapeared one by one the firangs around were looking at me in amusement, "how on earth can some one eat chilles like that' loved the attention and picked up a couple more chilles. "eat dirt guys see what we can do, huh!"
What amused me the most is loads of people lined up at the galata bridge for fishing, everyday many of them, selling their fresh catch, its an amazing thing, people of all age groups sipping on tea, puffs of cigerettes and fresh catch for sale on the spot cant get better than this. on my walk back i spotted a lot of shops in the subway selling guns i dint approach and ask if they were real of fake but it made a good picture, and actually it would have been fake i mean for 100 liras where would you get a real gun except in bihar. with the last fort liras on me i am gonna buy some turkish delights to take back to india, a couple of beers, 
turkish sufi music and mussels for dinner again...will try something else for desert if you guys say so. me not being an ameateur blogger and started wring only 10 days ago, now that my tour is coming to an end but the jorney goes on and on and on...so will keep posting, leave your comments if you want me to keep writing, will encourage me. tata
