Wed 11/03/09 08:09

So most of the day I just wandered around, walked to as far as I felt there were things to see, turned around and walked back and then went in the opposite direction until I got tired, then went back to the hostel. When I was on my way back I checked my gps and it said that I walked 15 miles, and there was probably something like five more to get back. That’s beside the point, needless to say I walked a lot.

The day was okay, I wasn’t too impressed with the city, but very impressed with the buildings. They were phenomenal. The mosques are just beautiful, that’s about the only word for it. When I say that I wasn’t that impressed with the city, it was where I went. I didn’t get into the heart of where people live, I just walked to some of the tourist places like the grand bazaar and to the river front. I’ve got some great pics of some of the places that I went.

I never get tired of being spotted as a tourist. I know I should, but it always makes me laugh when I hear someone call out, “hello” when I’m near to get my attention. That happened a lot too. I even think someone said something in Russian, thinking that I was Russian. It’s just one of those things that makes me smile. Anyway, I used to think I was a pretty good negotiator when it came to buying in markets, but I don’t think that’s the case anymore. Today I went to buy something warm to wear, and I saw a Nike sweatshirt. All good, I wanted and was going to buy it. He told me that it was 35, and I said 25, he went to 32 and I said 30… he said okay. I knew that I had screwed up. I should have started at 20. :) As he put it in the bag, I asked how low he would have gone, and he said 20. I groaned and he laughed. It was fun though and he walked me outside asked my name and introduced himself, shook my hand and I headed out.

Heading over to the other side of the river… er, maybe it’s a bay I don’t know for sure, but there is a bridge that it seems to be the spot to fish from. There were maybe hundreds of fishermen all casting off the bridge. I didn’t see anyone catch anything, but they sure were into it.