Travel guided by the Internet

First of all, my apologies for not writing any earlier. I was having troubles with my computer yesterday, which is kind of ironic considering that the purpose of my trip to Istanbul (aside from going to Istanbul, of course) was to try out an Online Guidebook that I had created with Mapped Travel. I guess it highlights one of the dangers in doing so... a printed guide is much more reliable than a computer (fortunately my computer only refused cooperation on Monday and I could use the little netbook in Istanbul without problems - I also had printed out the guide using the function supported on the website and, of course, I had the Lonely Planet that Ruud had slipped into my backpack, but more on that later...)

Amazing - that is how I can describe my trip to Istanbul in one word. And it is completely unqualified by the fact that I had used an Internet based automatically generated guide and not a traditional one - there is no external factor that could take amazing away from Istanbul or add to it.
My highlights are far too many to mention them all, but there is one thing that will forever stick in my mind: the view of the European side when taking of on a boat from Asia in the morning. The red glare of the sun as it reflects of the housetops, the sea, the palaces and mosques. It is a sight like no other.

But back to my experiment: can you travel, or more precisely can I travel, to Istanbul guided only by a set of notes I had compiled into a guide with Mapped Travel (see prior posts for the link to it). Prior to my trip the votes were split 50%/50% (I voted for and my friend Ruud strictly against.) And the answer is: yes, but...
Yes, because it actually worked quit well. There is less information to go by than there would be in a Lonely Planet or Rough Guide or any other for that matter, but it actually adds to the fun. You sometimes have to ask around a little to fill in a few blanks and so you get to know the locals (who were without exception extremely friendly), and yet I never felt scared because there was always enough info to give me the comfortable feeling that I wasn't too far off and that I could handle the situation. (As the Mapped Travel is a map based site, you certainly have some difficulty to get lost location-wise.)
But, because I almost missed Istiklal street which is really a major tourist attraction, and while it does feature on Mapped Travel with quite a few locations, I had only selected 2 of them and then clicked the "Show only noted" button so that the rest disappeared. As a consequence I never thought about it again and only learnt about the cool atmosphere and the many bars, shops and restaurants when I finally went to visit the two points I had marked - on the last day.

In summary then:
The particular site I tried (Mapped Travel can work as a replacement of a traditional guidebook, but you have to be prepared to be more adventurous, have to double-check that you don't miss anything and should print a guide for safety (see crashed computer) .
Oh, and I didn't look at Ruud's Lonely Planet, in fact I went to the post office to send it back to him in a box of Turkish Delight :-)

For those who are interested, I have added some notes to my original plan and here's the link My Trip with Comments (once more you need to click on Print in the sidemenu to get a Text-only version).

Iyi günler, (as I have learnt)
Ralph

It's 16 °C here in Amsterdam and there's a continuous drizzle. I just checked up on Istanbul and it's going to be 30 °C :-)

My friend, Ruud, also checked up - but on me. We were discussing my travel plans once more and I laid them out to him as I have to you before yesterday. Then he presented me with a Lonely Planet guidebook that he had bought and where he had marked all the better sights and locations that he had found in it and suggested I ditch my netbook and the dozen and a half pages of self-compiled guidebook that I did on the MappedTravel website in favour of the hundreds of professionally compiled pages he had on offer.

I refused, knowing that he would find a moment to slip the guide into my backpack anyway and knowing deep in my sub-conscience that I would prove unable to take it back out. I am looking forward to the warm weather, I am looking forward to doing travel with a guidebook I made myself on a page starting in an http and ending in a .com - and with cute little reassuring pictures. I am still myself though and I am still scared to be lost when no one else can speak my language and I still have lingering doubts about my trial by fire of a travel website (and with the fire having the potential of scorching me of all people in the end). So I will keep the guidebook hidden in the luggage, pretending not to have noticed that Ruud slipped it there, and I will not use it. Unless I have to - or unless I think I have to.

And now it's off to Schiphol and from there direct to Sabiha airport in Asian Istanbul. Wish me luck...

I will arrive at Sabiha airport late in the afternoon on the 9th, so my plan is simply to get to my hostel which I have booked on the Asian side, close to one of the points where my chosen website says a bus will arrive.

I will leave again on the afternoon of the 12th. That really only gives me the 10th and 11th to roam around. I have marked on the map what I am up to: My trip plan
I don't know how to attach a printout so you'll have to go to Notes&Guidebook->Print Guide yourselves to see the printable version of my plans.
(There was one image not found message on my guide. I have notified the site administrator. Let's see if they will fix it...)

The day after tomorrow it's departure day. Can't say I am still calm...

Today I have decided not to buy a guidebook. That is typically not a decision that I need to take, except that yesterday I had decided to go to Istanbul.
I have never been to Istanbul, there was a cheap flight to be had, I booked it, now I am going there, but I am not buying a guidebook.

Now I am not the most courageous of souls, that is to say I really am a coward. I want to have my hotel booked when I get somewhere and I want to know how to get to the booked hotel so that I can make good use of it. I also feel a little quinsy about going to places where I don't speak the language. Sure, everyone speaks English - except when you have been robbed of all your belongings, are completely lost, it's raining and you have no idea where to go. Then suddenly no one is around. Well, at least this is my phobia. And that is why it is quite odd for me to forgo the purchase of a travel guidebook in order to go to somewhere like Istanbul where the remote chance of it happening appears very close.

So I have to do something instead to give me a little peace of mind. I asked around and people suggested: why not use the net, it's there for you whenever you want to do something for free that would otherwise cost money. Of course, if something is for free there is a lot of variance in the quality and little room to complain. Anyway I had a quick search and chanced upon Thorntree, which had more info to worry than to reassure me and a few other forums, I read Wikitravel and I finally ended up at MappedTravel. Clicking on Istanbul brought me to a Google Map of the city with lots of little icons all about that you can browse and that pop up little windows with cute little reassuring images. The same friend who suggested using the internet to replace my usual guidebook declared me mad, but I swear I thought it was comforting to move the little mouse pointer from one location to the next and I was beginning to feel familiar with Istanbul without having been there. The same friend then suggested I should rather buy the guidebook then risk myself on the site, but being as stubborn as I am phobic, I maintained that I had made my choice. I would travel to Istanbul with MappedTravel (and my little netbook). I also marked a bookshop on the MappedTravel map for Istanbul that was to be my only companion, just in case that I needed to replace it with a proper book after all....

Once I am ready, I will let you have a link to the trip I planned on the website. Stay tuned.