Bad weather

I must admit we really had bad luck with the weather at our vacation. After the snowstorm started on Tuesday, it continued on Wednesday where even the most of the flights were cancelled, pupils had the day off at school and the ferries did not cross the sea any more.

We spent the day at the Great Basar and afterwards at the Spice Basar for shopping - mostly because they are inside. Cailin, a girl we met at the hostel, accompanied us and we really had a lot of fun at shopping!

It was a lot of fun, we bought the greatest stuff (for example: a lot of turkish towels that are perfect!) and heard the best phrases of the people who wanted to sell their stuff: "can i help you spend your money?" or "are you charlies angels?" I have never seen the movie but obviously it is popular in Istanbul.

After a hard day of slipping through the snowy streets of Istanbul inbetween the basars while it was snowing we decided to spend the evening inside and went to an event of the so called "Sema" of 5 men with white clothes dancing. It was not as we expected because it is a spiritual dance and it is mostly like a spiritual ritual you are allowed to watch.

Yesterday the snowing stopped and we decided to walk down the shopping street of Istanbul, starting at the Taksim Square, so everytime we get cold we can just walk into a store. They told us it would be totally crowded but there was nearly noone there - probably because of all the snow everywhere. By then the snow partly melted and there was not only snow but also water everywhere and since no one of us brought winter resistant shoes it was the third day in a row walking around with wet feet.

But the most interesting part was the street down to the Galata Tower - there were lots of small shops with alternative clothing, bags or other necessary stuff.

We got the advice that there is a hotel next to the tower with a rooftop restaurant with nearly the same sight of the city where we could drink a hot beverage without paying entrance fee so we got up there.

We spent the evening at Stefans flat watching a movie. So today we were pretty much out of ideas for bad weather. We just visited the palace with the harem and went to the movies in the evening (The Imitation Game - very good movie!). The weather report says that tomorrow there won't only be rain, also it should be sunny! I really hope so because I really have no idea what to do on another bad weather day.