I am a little disappointed that I won't be able to buy any nice costumes. That is a bummer. My last post was all about the costume designers and now I just have to go look. I have offered to buy nice costumes for my friends if they give me the money up front, plus a little extra (let's call it commission) for lugging it around and such. I hope that works out, because I would love to do shopping even though it wouldn't be for me.
At the very least, I will buy a cheap bra and belt set from the Grand Bazaar. I will probably also buy some hip scarves for myself and students/friends. Let's see what else? Shopping, shopping, shopping...That's about all I can think about...except for the Bath. I had the wildest dream about the hamam the other night. I can't even explain it, but let me tell you it got me excited.
Adam and I took a cold, hard look at my money situation last night. So far I have a little less than $500 saved for the trip. That was supposed to go to my plane ticket, but it looks like it will have to be my spending money. I can pay for the plane ticket after I return. I need money to eat! I plan on getting a little more money here and there, but we'll see.
I just received Rick Steves' Istanbul today. It says that you should plan on $100 per day for room and board, which includes $ for lunch and dinner, and assumes breakfast is included. Since I won't be paying for a room, I can assume $50 a day. Then I have to figure in entertainment to be about $7 per sight and a total of $20 per day for all that. So, I am up to $70 a day now, plus shopping and transportation. I think that sounds reasonable--although it looks like I will need to save a little more money... Any benefactors out there? ;) JKI pray I can manage. I also pray that I have fun adventures out on my own. Adam will be working for a lot of it, which only gives us a couple of days together. I get sad when I think about it. I want him to experience it with me! I mean I know he doesn't want to do the belly dance shopping or the Bath, so I can do that with no guilt for sure. But for all of the other stuff, I want him to be with me. Although, Adam will get to go an excursion that I will miss because it is before I arrive. So at least he'll get to see some of the other sites.
We really need to get together and plan out those days we can be together. He'll have to tell me exactly where he wants to go and I will do all of the other stuff alone. Say he picks the cruise (hoping) and the Topkapi Palace, or other places like that. I would wait for him and we could go together. We still need to decide if we are going to change hotel rooms. I am leaning toward yes, but I am not sure if it is worth it.
For those days that Adam is working, I'll have to figure out how to get to the city-center by myself. After about 4 days of that I will have it down and so if we changed rooms, I would be back to square one. But it would be cool to have a place that is walking distance to points of interest. It would also be cool to travel outside the city to see other places and the countryside, but I don't know if that is possible. Probably not.
Anyway, as you can see there is much to be done. Now it's time to layout all of the details and groundwork. Hopefully we'll get to figure it out this weekend.
1 comment:
In a month, you can probably rake in a little more in savings, so perhaps you can still swing a costume. Have you cut out all the extra little things? I usually live like a pauper until big trips:)
I think you, a renowned world traveller, will be able to get into the swing of things rather quickly and figure your way around. I'm excited for you!
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