And now the end ist near

So why did we get up on our last day after hardly 5 hours of sleep? Because as Katharina says, a visit to the hamam is as good as two hours of sleep. So we did our last packing, had some breakfast and went off to the Galatasary Hamam because it's only a 2 minutes walk from the hotel.
You know that you have been carrying a heavy handbag for a week when you get a massage... My neck muscles needed some special work!
Katharina's flight left two hours before mine so she left after some small lunch. And we promised each other to come back together as soon as possible, we had been such good travel companions.

I strolled up and down the street a bit and successfully avoided buying any more shoes - which was wise because at the airport it turned out that my luggage was overweight. No surprise! Stuff like hip scarves with coins or tribal jewellery is heavy! And I even had given the Bella costume to Katharina! Luckily the guy at the check in counter let me pass without charging anything.

I spent half of the flight calculating what I had spent for all my stuff - and I was even under budget for the costumes! Good girl!

Last evening in Istanbul....

We were both so happy with our new costumes that we had to take pictures. Fortunately the hotel has a very nice, old fashioned lobby which makes an excellent backdrop.

Then we packed our tango shoes and went to Özsüt for a late cake dinner. Of the different milongas going on this evening we chose BailaTango because it's practically situated in the same street as Araf where we planned to go later. Besides this I have been there before and liked the atmosphere.

Like many buildings on Istiklal Caddesi this one has a club on every floor. You might find an 80ies party on the first floor, traditional Turkish music on the 2nd floor, salsa on the 3rd and hard rock on the 4th - while they are playing house music in the basement! You also find a lot of bands playing live music. There really is a party for every taste - if you get bored at night in Beyoglu, it's your own fault...

Although we had been warned that there would be "only 5 people" the milonga was pleasantly crowded and the owner of the dance school, Metin Yasir (who is rather famous dancer and teacher) even sent us two dancers over in the beginning to make sure were dancing. Then one dance partner followed the other with hardly 5 minutes to breathe inbetween. I have never had such busy milongas as during this week!

Katharina left first because one of her friends was already waiting at Araf, I followed her a little later. I am not sure at what time because it was the night when they changed from daylight saving time to regular time. Fortunately for us, it meant one hour more of sleep... (comes in handy if you get up at 9 am after a long party night!)

Last full day

Today we walked a lot... first we started by Dolmabahçe and wanted to stroll along the Bosphorus. But we had to find out that there had been so many palaces and other big houses built right by the shore that there was practically no way to walk by the water. Instead we walked along the noisy street behind these buildings until we had enough and caught a bus out to Bebek.

Bebek is an area a bit outside that's quite pretty - a place where rich people have their weekend houses and maybe a little yacht in the
harbour...

After taking a little snack we walked back, enjoying the view on the Bosphorus. After about a total of 2 hours of walking in the sun we were getting tired. So we got a taxi and went to another part of the city called Nisantasi. It's a great shopping area, in case this should interest you :-) But most of all we went to have a kebap t Hacibey - it's really expensive but tastes absolutely delicious! No comparision with any kebap you have ever eaten!

Then it was time to collect our costumes. Katharina got hers from SIM very quickly. I then went to Legends, but they were still working on it - 4 women sewing like crazy. But the result is absolutely stunning!

Now it's time to pack and get ready for the last night - we plan to party hard!

between hectic and relaxed....

Just after we got off the ferry (relaxed) we went back to shopping, checking off some of the last things on our shopping lists. So we first went to the fashion jewellery and glitterstone shops behind the Egyptian basar. I even found the most tasteless golden soap dispenser
in the world, just perfect for my bath!

Then we had to run up to the Grand Basar to pick up our orders from Gülseren before they closed the shops.

By now all the relaxation had faded away... But we went to visit one of Katharina's friends at his cozy hotel and had dinner there to cool
down a little.

Then it was time to get ready for the milonga at TangoJean where we were already expected by all our fans :-) Kathrina danced so much she got blisters on her toes! By now I think we can say that she's an official tango addict...
Of course I also had my share of good dancers. And I tried to explain to a beginner dancer that he should slow down and dance more to the music instead of cramming all the moves he knows into one song which results into a rather gymnastic experience. But he didn't really get it... Maybe in a year...

Some fresh air

Even we need a break from shopping -so today we took a ferry to Büyükada (princes island) and took a round trip in a horse carriage. It wasn't spectacular but quite nice. Then we had lunch in one of the many fish restaurants.

By the way, if you are wondering when I get the time to write my blog: I write most of it on my iPhone when there is some "sitting around time" like waiting time like at the costume tailors or right now spending 1,5 hours on the ferry back to Istanbul.

Tango fun multiplied

Last evening I waited for Katharina to get home from her tango lesson.... I waited a long time. When she finally arrived it was clear why: she was carrying several bags from different shops... That's what you get from having one of Istanbul's main shopping streets as your way home!

She was quite exhausted and had to take a nap during which I sorted out my own aquisitions, went through my e-mails and prepared my clothes for the night.

In the end we got out after 10 PM. Fortunately we had had a real lunch for a change, so we decided to have some big, fat cakes for dinner.

Then we walked to the milonga which took place on the top floor of a nice hotel. Again a great view that few people were looking at ;-).

Katharina had planned to mostly sit and watch - but she actually was asked to dance several times. It's funny to see that she is now where I was 6 years ago: a bloody beginner in her first ever milongas in Istanbul!
For me it was the moment to dance in my brand new shoes. I mostly danced with Özdener, my newfound tango soulmate. He's a pianist in his fifties - and musicians often make good tango dancers because they really feel the music.

Day four... getting tired...

So, all that heavy shopping and a slight (hahaha) lack of sleep are starting to affect us...
Our main adventure today was to go to Çedikpaşa hamam, my favourite. Not expensive, but spacious. And they have an extra sauna room and a little pool. We really needed the sweating, scrubbing and massage....

Then Katharina went for her tango lesson and I picked up my shoes - and had a siesta...

Nightlife

We met up for dinner with one of Karharina's friends and two of his friends. I seem to be eating some sort of meat for most meals... köfte and the like. But so far I haven't gotten bored with it :-)

The we splittet, I went to the milonga at TangoJean. Katharina just came along shortly to arrange a private tango lesson for the next day, then went to party with the boys.

I was very busy dancing with a different man for every tanda (round of 4 - 5 songs). I guess I have arrived at my goal of becoming a decent social dancer :-) I don't have ambitions to teach or perform this dance, but I want to be good enough so that men want to dance with me more than once. A woman even complimented me, saying that I am a "çok güsel dansöz". Mission accomplished!

After the milonga was over I joined the others at a club called Araf - motto: All Music From The World. And that's exactly what they played, it eas so much fun! We had a blast there until nearly 3 AM...

Let's Basar!

Day three and it's about time we hit the Kapali Çarçi, also known as Grand Basar.
First we went to have breakfast at a small hotel where Katharina had stayed before and was friends with the owner. He took escorted us to the basar and took us to some shops where we bought tons if tribal jewellery.

After a short break we went to see an old favourite costume shop called Gülseren where I had bought one of my favourite costumes about 12 years ago. I bought a shipload of hip scarves for a friend of mine and ordered a skirt while Katharina got pants for her group and another skirt. Wholesale galore :-)
We'll need to go back and piıck up the stuff later but anyway, we still have some things on the shopping list we need from the Basar...

Afterwards I went to Sim for a fitting for my new costume and to Bella to pick up my new costume! Looks great!
And then I took Katharina to the tango shoe maker so that she could order her own custom mades shoes. Who cares that she is a beginner - she has great shoes!

Needless to say that it was another day where I was nearly starving until we finally got dinner! But more about that later, it's hamam time now...

More Tango

Last night I went to a very nice milonga - they even had a panoramic view down on Istanbul.

Funny, at first I sat for a while and somehow thought that I wouldn't dance much tonight...Everybody was just sitting and chatting... And then I ended up being the first on the dancefloor. My dance partner was a tango pianist - it's always nice to dance with musicians, the really feel the music. I also happened to dance with a guy who is Turkish but was born in Germany, so we also had a nice little chat afterwards. He called himself a "beginner" since he only has been dancing tango for 3 months - but he must have been dancing a LOT during this time, I never met a man who danced so well after this short time!
And we agreed that dancing tango is like entering a parallel universe... It's a place apart from the normal world...