"Jack Campin - bogus address" wrote in message
...
I'm off to Istanbul for a few days this month. First visit to Turkey and
basically a spur-of-the-moment idea while my wife is visiting her mother.

I'm flying BLR-IST with GF (two four-hour hops with a two hour layover in
BAH and, being GF, will no doubt be late), which cost INR40,000 - about
USD1000 - and staying at the Turing Ayasofya Konaklari in Sogukçesme
sokagi
in the Sultanahmet district at EUR120 per night.

Sheesh, you have expensive tastes.


Yeah, I'm all for cheap-ish flights especially for short hops but one of my
weaknesses is a bit of hotel comfort. The utter niceness (in print, anyway)
of the staff sealed it for me. (It could be a form letter, of course).

In the middle of the stay I'm planning for an overnight trip to Gallipoli
via Canakkale.


Unless you've researched it well enough to be your own guide I'd go with
a tour. I've never been there myself; I have only limited interest in
watching Aussies trying to persuade themselves they're having a deeply
meaningful experience.


I suppose it's part of my culture - no veterans in the family but I'm
slightly interested in military history. I'll let you know how meaningful it
was.



The most interesting collections of restaurants I know of are the Kurdish
ones near the Aqueduct of Valens (very cheap) and the assortment in
Kadikoy (Ciya, which does historical and regional food, seems to have
started the development of this area into foodie-central, but there are
several others now, and the Edwardian-timewarp Haci Bekir sweetie shop
is a must).


All sounds good. Thanks.

The municipal bookshop in Beyoglu (Istanbul Kitapcisi) is a great
resource for books on history and art, and for finding out what's on.
There is also a monthly Time Out guide - it's in Turkish but you should
be able to figure out enough for it to be worth having.

For musical events (my thing) look at the posters outside the Ataturk
Cultural Centre at Taksim and the flyers in the Mephisto bookshop/cafes
(in Beyoglu and Kadikoy). But a lot of concerts are only advertised on
flyposted posters, which get overpasted very fast. Turkish music is
pretty cheap, Westernized rock costs more, jazz is very expensive (but
Turkish jazz is attractive and original so if you have an interest in
the genre it's worth it).



Turkish music sounds worth a look/listen. Thanks again.


My brief research into Canakkale gives the general impression it's
a swinging university town but I may have to adjust that for local
sentiments.

Report back. I've never been tempted to go there, and I've been over
most of the country.


I shall do. It's all terribly exciting.

Cheers,
George W Russell
Bangalore