June 15 2009 -  Day 172 – Istanbul, Turkey

Somehow we managed to get ourselves into another 16 hours of traveling and after a long, hot search for lodging we broke down and took the cheapest place we found.

Down by the sea

Unfortunately it was also the worst place we saw and one of the worst places we’ve ever stayed. With little drive to do much else, we spent a wonderful evening down by the harbor watching the fisherman casting nets and the sea gulls flying overhead laughing at us, the silly bi-peds.

Travel Tip:

Avoid the Best Island Hostel in Sultanahmet like the plague, or at least the basement rooms. The dorms were all booked up  and all they had left was a double room on the bottom floor. But Istanbul is pretty pricey in terms of lodging and we needed the cheapest thing we could find. After a few hours we noticed everything in the room had taken on a dampness and was starting to smell weird, like mildew and maybe a cat. Not only was the room shit, the staff were pretty ridiculous and rude. When we left, one even had the nerve to ask us to go online and pay to make a reservation just so that we would write a nice review for them. Even though they seem to be the cheapest place in the Sultanahmet area and have a good location, it’s definitely worth spending a couple extra dollars on a better hostel just up the street. And the breakfast was awful (decent bread but served with rotting sliced vegetables and olives).