My Turkey travelbook is completed!

I have not had much time to travel due to work commitments, and since i got hooked onto photography, I thought it would be good to start on a second travelbook (a book of my travels!), finally... after about 4 months of compiling, editing and procrastination, my Turkey travelbook is completed, and even up for sale!

The link to its preview is available here:

Türkiye by bentse | Make Your Own Book

Enjoy!

Or better yet, buy a copy!

ben

Have fate will meet...

Well, if one is not amazed at how I met Jamie (see earlier post about meeting people) in both Granada and Toledo (well, both are still Spanish cities) randomly, hopefully this post impresses.

I met an Australian backpacker in Selcuk, Turkey on 11 May 2009 on a bus ride. We spoke a couple of hours and she alighted at some place I don't remember.

Fast forward 48 days later, 1590km away, and I meet this same lady in my hostel (Hostel99, see previous post) in Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic!

And no, I did not know her travel schedule, we did not keep in touch subsequent to Selcuk... it was just one of those "hey, I've seen you somewhere before" moments.

Totally random, totally cool!

Luggage storage in Istanbul

I learnt that there are no lockers for baggage storage at the bus station close to Taksim Square in Istanbul, so here's what I did:

1. Board a metro train with full luggage, and show discomfort in maneuvering it through the crowded cabin. I had 4hours to kill before my return flight to Oslo.



2. Spoke to the person next to me when I got my seat. Asked about his career, and his plans. Shared with him my plan for the day, which was to find a place to store my baggage for 4hours so that I could visit the Chora Museum.



3. My fellow passenger was a retired Turkish doctor who had been living in Australia for the past 30 years. He was in Istanbul to visit his friends, who had offices around Taksim Square. He suggested I put my bag at his friend's office, and pick it up after I had finished my sightseeing.



4. Thinking that it was just clothes in the bag, I took up his offer. After all, even if the bag disappeared, the office would not, rite?



5. Upon alighting the metro at Taksim Square, we walked around 400m to his friend's office on the 3rd floor of a building, which turned out to be a company which provided accounting services. I placed my bag down and took off for the Chora museum


6. I returned 3 hours later, with 2 oranges for the office boss, picked up my bag and left Turkey with the best example of world-famous Turkish hospitality.

Chora museum, with the best church mosaics I have ever seen