last weeks &amp; days in istanbul

geez, im so lagging behind.

almost a month has passed since my last entry...but oh well, its not like ur not used to this kind of behaviour...=P
anyway, here are my last weeks & days in istanbul in a kind of summary:

*on friday, 20th, after we came back from our trip to the islands i met my first couchsurfing host. we met in a bar really close to the hostel, had a lil chat (in german =P) etc.
although his overall situation was a lil bit difficult he nevertheless was really caring, he took me for a walk on sunday (starting from kurtuluş, the area where he lived), told me a lot of stuff about turkish life and finally also introduced me to my second host (= so regarding my general experiences with turkish men at that time (not good |P) i was really lucky with him, had a good start into cs-life yap!

*moved to my second host on monday, 23th, beşiktaş.
we got along really really well with each other, talking alot about everything actually, went shopping together for her new work (at the british embassy [!]) yeah! xD and going out of course; sometimes together, sometimes not (= so it was a really healthy relationship, i didnt feel pressured about spending 24h with her and neither did she, i felt home at her home.
doing the usual tourist-stuff but also experiencing normal every-day life in istanbul i didnt notice that i ended up spending full 2 weeks at her place. when searching for a host i was going with the males first since i find them to be more easy-going, but i really hope to stay in contact with that woman (=

*i didnt start doing "serious" sight-seeing until 21st march. what i saw:

sultan ahmed / blue mosque (sultanahmed camii)
basilica cistern (yerebatan sarayı / sarnıcı)
hagia sophia (aya sofya)
grand bazaar (kapalı çarsı)
turkish & islamic museum (türk ve islam eserleri müzesi)
istanbul modern
topkapı palast (topkapı sarayı)

apart from the cistern and the bazaar i found everything very interesting & impressive. the cistern was nice, but it didnt really give me anything and the bazaar...well, maybe i didnt find it too impressive as ive already seen sth like that in beijıng (but [against my expectations] the salesmen were definately much less hassling than in beijıng!). hagia sophia was f*****cking impressive, but still i think 20YTL are too much (is it contradicting...? Oo) topkapı was also 20YTL, but its huuuuge inside and you can spend a lot more time in there than in the sophia. when leaving the palast in the direction of the archaeology museum there is this really nice & big park. i definately recommend going there for relaxing after the tour!

*went out quite a lot (and became better in drinking i guess xD) and met up with new ppl. a freaky spanish guy, many german-speaking turks, germans |P, weird americans, rasta men & women...(=
the club "araf" (in so-called nevizade) for dancing is reaaaally nice, theyre playing a good mix of jazz, 70s, funk, reggae, rock, balkan beats and of course turkish traditional & modern music. ppl say its a real tourist place there, but still, love(d) it! i became a fan of turkish traditional music, hope to bring back home a bunch of good artists (= also "nayah" is a good place for live music, will cost u 10YTL tho.

attended 3 offıcial cs-gatherings and 1 unoffıcial one. the first 2 meetings havent been too interesting, 90% (turkish) guys and so many freaks! >> but the last one (on the asian side - kadiköy) was really good, decent men who really were just interested in having a good chat & fun. at that one i met the person who gave me a free ride to bursa (=

[edit] that unofficial one was organised by girls from the austrian-highschool in istanbul. she just send random msgs to travellers in istanbul between 18-24yrs, but in the end we all ended up talking in german to each other. we were a group of 7 ppl, 3 from highschool, 3 germans (two other guys who were born around cologne as well! |P) and one "ordinary" turkish guy, who used to live in stuttgart for 1 year...well...yah, germans are EV-ER-Y-WHERE! no kidding. "good" or "bad"?...well, anyway |P it was good & interesting to get to know turkish ppl who were that interested in austria/germany.
walked around the city, ate, talked and later at night seh germans went out drinking & clubbing together with other turkish ppl (livemusic and afterwards reggea = fun fun fun!) so that again was another coming-home-at-6-day...=P [/edit]

*one of my walks through istanbul ended in the northern part of the city: ortaköy.
the center is nice & small, much less touristy & hectic than sultanahmet area, with lots of small antique & jewelry shops (wack! -and afaik also selling real stuff =P). except the noble hotels and huge universities on the way (i also wanna have a university by the sea!!! *__*) the walking route was not too exciting, but still its worth the walk!
also the street from istiklal street leading down to the galata tower (galipdede caddesi?) is really worth seeing. alternative shops with more charm, little cafes...

and now pictures finally, juhey!