Istanbul

1.
Stayed in the Novotel. This is the view when you sit in front of it and look at the pool.

2.
The hotel's room service provided great and authentic Turkish cuisine.

3.
Old Egyptian obelisk in front of the Sultanahmet Mosque, for whatever reason.

4.
The Sultanahmet Mosque.

5.
The Hagia Sofia.

6.
Chillin' with the Nargileh (waterpipe). Friend's face blurred out. National security.

7.
Happened to walk by a musical performance in a park close to the Sultanahmet Mosque. Packed FULL with people and played some of the finest music I have ever heard come from classical instruments. It was one awesome show. The guy with the ponytail went completely retarded on his violin (he's shown on the screen in the top right corner of the picture).

8.
Chillin' in the Florya Park with three other retards. View was very nice.

9.
Mini Turkey exhibition.

10.
The Bosphorus bridge at day. Looking at it from a really nice Japanese restaurant called "Zuma".

11.
The Bosphorus bridge at night. Let the Saké and Vodka flow!

 

Couldn't see the pics....

My mind went straight to They Might Be Giants after reading the title.

 

Tried to fix it, but was unsuccessful. So, I put the direct links there. Now you can see them!

I think my internet is screwing with me. I hope one of the moderators/admins can fix the picture issue for me.
--- merged: Sep 14, 2011 10:09 PM ---

I like the song a lot. The video clip is crazy.

 

I'm not sure what's happening with those links. Tried to fix them but no luck.

I was in Istanbul last October. I was only there for 24 hours but it made me want to go back. I can't wait to visit again.

 

Thanks for trying, Charlatan. Istanbul is a great place, but I will have to remember to make a much bigger budget next time.

Maybe cynthetiq, the_jazz or Baraka_Guru could fix this crap, please?

 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
--- merged: Sep 15, 2011 6:50 PM ---
I don't have an ImageShack account. I clicked on the embed this image link can copied the contents displayed in the forum box.

 

Thanks for the info, Baraka.

[Snipped img links]

Hope it works now!

 

Oh. I was hoping you could put the pictures in the original first post for me.

Apparently I can't edit a post of mine after 15 minutes have passed.

Pretty please?

PS: The pictures are in the right order as in the first post.

 

Cheers, mate. Appreciated.

 

... and I walk in just after all the hard work is done!

Hi Remixer

These are awesome, and thanks for sharing. I'd sure like to have tried a few spoonfuls of that food!

Behind the violin player, I noticed an oud player ... did he get any attention, or was the violinist the main focus. I play a bit of middle-eastern style violin and will be doing more oud playing once I have re-glued the bridge which flew off one evening. Any recording of those musicians?

Many years ago, I was a bit south of Istanbul ... I'll close before I get all nostalgic.

It has been great to look at your pictures.
Best wishes.

 

The photo of your friend's face blurred is eerie, but cool too. Hmmm....

 

Happy you liked the pictures. I was joking with the Turkish food description of the dishes. It was all delicious, though.

They were:
1. Loin of lamb with potato gratin, butter rice and mushroom sauce
2. Lamb chops with mashed potatoes
3. Grilled prawns with cheese parfait, avocado purée and caramelized orange slices (My favourite dish there)
4. Fusion plate of appetizers... can't remember what was on it

About the musicians, the absolute focus was on those two violin players. No idea why the other guys were even there, because the noise those two produced left us unable to hear any of the other players. The oud player was very skilled and we got to hear snippets of his performance when the violin players waited for the rhythm to pick up again. My friend that night made some audio recordings, I'll see if I can get them off him and put it here.

You'd like him. He's an absolute player, without the asshole-ism.

 

... and of course I went to full magnification on the food pictures to identify those ingredients. Dang good spread. Thanks for the description.
I appreciate your asking your friend about the recordings. If you and he are tech-savvy about converting music for easy access on the web, then good. If not ... eg if he can only provide big .wav files, (Like with my Sony D50 field recorder), then sendit to me and I can master it for web.

 

No worries, Zen. I'll ask him whenever I see him again.

Don't have a clue what format I will receive the clips, but I'm sure that, with some (major) help from my fiancée, I'll figure it out.

 

That mini-Turkey exhibition has the potential to be the greatest miniature golf course of all time!