Istanbul day 2 - carpet dealers, Hamami and scaling the turkish castle.

What a great second day! Yesterday I took a boat tour up the Bosphorus with Nathan and Han who I met in my hostel. And in the evening we went for a Turkish bath and massage with some Japanese friends Hiro and Shoto. And we finished the day by getting piss drunk and eating at the home of Omar a Turkish rug dealer in Istanbul.

So first Bosphorus tour. We docked at a castle at the tip of the Bosphorus connecting to the Black Sea. The castle had no safety measures and literally you can climb up to the ledge and fall down hundreds of feet below to the water. There was one security guard there but he really didn't care a lot. No where was this more exemplified than when I asked him if I can climb the actual castle itself. He told me go ahead. I think he didn't really think I was going to do it since it was quite steep. But once I actually got started climbing he started to get worried. Needless to say I got to the top in one piece and had an awestruck audience down below. My friends Nathan and Han soon followed suit and we got treated to an amazing view of the surrounding area.

After the Bosphorus tour we were going to meet up with Shota (computer engineer) and Hiro (Archaeologist specializing in Byzantine art). They are actually not connected in any way other than the fact that they both know Omar who is an Turkish carpet dealer in Istanbul. The story is quite long to explain but we all met at Omar's shop. Omar can speak fluent Japanese even though he is Turkish. Together we went to the local Hamimi which is a Turkish spa. I got rubbed down by a 50 year old hairy Turkish man with soap scrubs and suds! Haha it was definitely an experience! The only massage experience I have to compare is the Thai massage I got in Thailand and its a totally different massage. For one this was is less painful and two it was less of a massage but more of a skin scrubbing by the hairy Turkish man.

After you come out of the spa they wrap you in towels and you sit around in a lounge sipping on Turkish coffee and water.

Finally after the spa Omar graciously invited us to his home and cooked for us. There was some really good conversations between our multicultural contingent of Turkey, Canada, England, Singapore and Japan.

We finally wrapped up the night and headed back to our hostels having found new homes in each others countries 

Me Han and Nathan. 

Fried clams and rice stuffed clams. 

Climbing down from the castle 

After the spa scrub down

Me, Han, Nathan, Hiro, Shota

Omar our gracious host who can speak perfect English, Japanese and Turk

So there is very little safety measures in Turkey. We visited this castle and there was only a cord sectioning off the castle and the sea. I noticed a section of the wall where it seems climeable. Of course I had to go for it, it actually wasn't too difficult. I would have never done this if I wasn't 100% sure I was capable. So no risks here :D 

I had an awesome time with these guys. You can see the bridge they are trying to build in the background. Also after the bridge it turns into the Black sea. Prior to that it is still the Bosphorus. 

Bosphorus which is a huge rive imo. 

Nathan and Han followed me up, but from the other side where it was less steep. 

Peace from Istanbul.