A night on the town in Istanbul

A few of the shoppees and I went out for a night in Istanbul, Turkey. I had the night off for a change which was very relaxing. While I was off all day, they did not get released until 7:30pm, so we weren't able to leave before 8. The free shuttle stops running at 6pm, so we were forced to divide into two taxis. It is amazing how taxi prices vary. At the port the drivers will work together to force you to pay a high price. They were asking $20 to get to the Hagia Sophia which we were simply not willing to pay. On the street we found a cab willing to run off the meter, and we owed 9 Turkish Lira (about 4 dollars) for the ride. So silly.

When we got out of the cab we just started walking around and enjoying the beautiful night life of Istanbul. There is a general feeling in all of the small shops of "the more stuff the better." Some of these places are so cram packed with stuff that it really ends up looking like artwork, not souvenirs. The pictures below are from the inside of one really cool shop.

Display posters on the face of the steps.

Walls and walls full of magnets and plates.

Ceilings covered in decorative lanterns.

Below is half of the gang that went out with us. Iain is of course on the left, sitting next to Abdul. Then Praful, and Tony is on the far right. Abdul and Praful are really neat guys, and unfortunately they are signing off on the 25th (next Istanbul). We're really going to miss them... and the shop will certainly miss their sense of humor terribly. Abdul used to always call me Mary until he finally read my name tag one day and got really embarrassed. Now he calls me MaddieMaddie. Very sweet.

The rest of the gang, Christhian on the left and JC on the right.

Some street views of the bistro where we dined.

I wish these pictures had come out a bit brighter.

All in all, an excellent evening of relaxed fun with some really good, new friends. Couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my evening off.