Istanbul Was Constantinople

I am so exhausted.... today has been a bit straining. I wouldn't call it culture shock. I'm really amazed by this city, it is quite amazing. Completely different to anything I have ever experienced. Beautiful bits, mixed with mayhem, mixed with millins of shoebox apartment buildings, mixed with crazy traffic, mixed with amazingly huge mosques, mixed with rubbish laden shorelines crawling with cats (yes cats), mixed with windy cobbled narrow streets that are easy to get lost in and gazzilions of people. Istanbul is cool!

I landed at the airport at 7am (3pm QLD time) a bit tired. I wandered in circles at the airport for a while before catching the bus. Unfortunately none of the bus people spoke English so I chose a destination that looked closest to the Blue Mosque area of town and went. The bus stopped in a really busy part of town and the bus driver kept looking at me so I figured that was my stop. I climbed out and had no idea where I was so I started walking. No street names that I could see, so I just kept walking and walking... for about 4 hours. I eventually hit the water and figured it out from there. The lost part was quite enjoyable, but when I stopped to get my bearings the hassling started. It got me annoyed pretty quick. The whole- where you from... I have cousin live in Melbourne, where you stay, I know good hotel/shop/travel agent/rug seller/ restaurant/let me polish your shoes etc. It was so intense I couldn't actually look at my map long enough to figure out where I was. I eventually hooked up with Dutch tourists who had some idea and then bailed into a coffee shop where there was an Aussie and Canadian. Chatted to them for a while, calmed down some, and figured out where I was.

I finally found a hotel to rest my head and its really nice. Amazing little place built into old roman ruins. I just had a shower and feel much better. I'm off to do some more exploring and hopefully find this 'Doh doh' yummy food place. I finally figured that if you look intensly at a tourist sight and know what the sight is called and claim you are looking at the tourist sight, while really navigating... telling people you need no help and can get out of the hassling much easier.