Turkey

OK let’s do a catch up before I move on

Turkey…Bad news first, unfortunately the mem card with all my photos on it has broken & I’ve lost all my pics…sucks the big one!

It started off with a quick pop into London to go out on the lash with the London lads & lasses. The plan was to land early in the evening have a few pints with the crew & then head back out to Heathrow about 11pm on the last express, sleep in the terminal & catch the 7am flight to Istanbul. After a few pints however the idea of pulling an all nighter and catching the 1^st express at 4am in the morning seemed like more fun…it worked a charm, the only complaint I have is that I was unable to stay awake & watch the in-flight movie of Kung fu Panda!! Special thanks to Estelle for staying up with me…you’re a hip hip lady…see ya real soon!

So Saturday was spent finding my hotel/hostel then going out and getting truly lost, then trying to get unlost, lots of fun… especially with the getting lost part being a lot easier due to sleep deprivation.

The next morning & in fact most mornings I was woken by the call to prayer…In my opinion much less abrasive than church bells. Sunday was meant to be more sightseeing but this had to be flexible due to there being an F1 race on (What you thought I’d not watch the race?...Silly Wabbit) The race was great even if the commentary was not as interesting as usual – being in Turkish and all. Near the end of the race some American girls entered the common room where I was watching the race and proceeded to get excited about Indy cars being on TV & then getting disappointed about it being only F1. A few of them wanted to know more about this strange euro sport and approached me for the down low – wisely waiting until the race had finished

(which leads me to a side note: (It’s my blog I’m allowed to ramble if I want) Pretty much all of us non yanks love a bit of America bashing whenever we can (myself included) but so far in my travels the vast, vast majority of Americans have been polite, friendly, self-mocking, great people, something I could not say about some of us commonwealth types.)

What ensued was one of the greatest conversations about motorsport that I have had in years and in which I found out (much to my embarrassment) that Scott Dixon was about to win the reunited Indy Champ car series…Go Scottie, sorry for forgetting about you.

Unluckily Fiona & the girls were heading onto Croatia the next day, not to worry I was in a country full of some of the most beautiful women on this planet for the next week but more about that later.

Also before I move on I have to comment on the parks in Istanbul, there’s heaps of them, they are all really clean and full of really cool sculptures (Man I’m pissed off I’ve lost the photos)

Monday I realised I had forgotten my razor…not a problem, I was in the country they named a type of shave after, if you’re ever in Turkey, do it! They are cheaper than chips and a million times better than the pants Turkish shaves you get in London. Looking much better I spent the rest of the morning checking out the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar and surrounding district. Both are fun, but if like me you love trying food & only then asking what it is, the Spice Bazaar is for you. The Grand Bazaar is huge & a couple of stalls I found I could never find again on return visits…think that fortune telling machine from ‘BIG’. Buying stuff in Turkey is an experience…fun but draining, basically I worked out (Through trial & error) that if you don’t get around a 60% discount on the price you were originally offered you’re getting ripped off.

In the afternoon I meet up with a pair of Finnish guys who had ridden bikes from Scandinavia and were trying to work out how much further east they could get in the 10 days they had remaining of holidays. One of the lads knew a cool part of the city where you can buy the freshest fish sandwiches ever, we’re talking pulled out of the harbour, 5sec gutting, STRAIGHT into the pan for a flash fry then in between a roll & in your hand….beat that! Later we found a Turkish café (not that hard as there’s one every 10m), had dinner, smoked hookah & played game after game of backgammon, all the time not really wanting an alcoholic drink…big up Turkish tea. That changed later when we decided we needed to find a nightclub, good times.

I had booked in a city tour on Tuesday. Started off with a harbour cruise which from my days going to work across Sydney harbour I’ve always thought was great way to fight a hang-over, judging from the amount of people that had to run downstairs that cure may not be for everyone. I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again Istanbul is a very beautiful city especially when looked at from the water with all the amazing mosques & palaces and of cause the awesome Bosphorus bridge, plus we were buzzed by a couple of flyboys in F-16s. The cruise also gave me a chance to have a chat to the cute tour guide Esel. After the cruise Esel took us up to the top of Eyup Cemetery, Istanbul’s oldest cemetery & also a wicked lookout point over the golden horn. A quick cable car down to lunch. Then onto a bus for an up close & personal look at mosques, palaces, churches and parks. Across the Bosphorous Bridge for coffee & a spot of fortunetelling, before heading back to a carpet shop built in an old cistern to watch the artisans making Turkish rugs, and artisans they are! I once made a rug when I was a kid but this is light speeds ahead, still I’d take my Woody Woodpecker rug any day. That was the end of the official tour but Esel was going out for a few drinks with her mates & invited me. My ego would tell you that it was all about me but my upbringing would explain that I was the only normal young person on the tour. As always going out with locals is always so much better plus they were wickedly cool at growling at anyone who spoke Turkish in front of me

The next morning I had to be up early to catch to bus for the tour to Gallipoli & Troy. A bit scary as my tour seemed to consist of a bunch of Kath & Kim types & their henpecked husbands & 3 Aussie girls who were just not my cup of tea (Girly swot types). It took us half the day just to get to the Gallipoli peninsula where luckily we were joined at lunchtime by an Aussie gezza who was a good craiq. Gallipoli is definitely a must do for any Antipodeans seeing where the diggers (& Turkish) fought and died is really powerful. Plus the Turks are very cool about the whole thing and welcome us with open arms.

We stayed the night in Canakkale where Lange & I decided to roll the town (The girls wanting to stay in the hostel and darn their socks). A great night of us trying to hit on the local girls (The ladies were polite but dismissive) and rocking out to a great local band that played ½ English tunes & ½ local. To top the night off we found the best kebab shop, who thought it would be funny to give their tourist customers a bowl of chillies with their Kebabs... So what do you get when you put a Kiwi lad, an Aussie lad & a bowl of chillies together after a few pints? Why a chilli eating competition of cause...I apologise to the other passengers on the bus the next day.

So…Troy, fairly cool in a bunch of blocks kind of way. If you’re a Kiwi or Aussie around the Gallipoli area then definitely pop down but if you are up in Istanbul I wouldn’t bother with it. It was cool to see where Brad Pitt & Eric Banner had a fight but unfortunately 1000 odd years of sediment had pushed the beach about 5 kilometres down the road. The tour guide was very informative and also the ex head of archaeology of Istanbul University, I know this because he told us about 7 times in the hour we wandered the rubble.

The next day I got up early to check out the Blue Mosque. I had tried to go earlier in the week but hadn’t realised that shorts were a no no, hence the early idea to sidestep the Istanbul heat. Unfortunately I was a bit overenthusiastic on the early part & got to the mosque an hour before it opened…Not a problem, time for one of my favourite activities; people watching.

The Blue Mosque is amazing, surprisingly bare inside, a far far cry from your St Paul’s type places with their overuse of gold leaf but still with that quietness of sound & soul that places of worship & places of learning have. I grabbed some pamphlets on Islam and found a quiet corner to do some study of my own. After about 20 min a dude called Mohamed (Like he was going to be called anything else) came over and asked if I had any questions, I did and so started a great chat. I found out heaps about the faith & Mohamed, turns out he did this about once a week (Note: he’s not knocking on your door at 10am on a Saturday morning you’re knocking on his) as he had got annoyed about how the media and the terrorists were presenting his faith, so after praying about it had come up with this idea; he just hung out in the mosque every now & then on his days off & answered questions for westerners in a casual & definitely not “Holier than thou” kind of way…Very cool guy…& no I’m not converted.

After that I went to the Cistern Basilica. This is uba cool & one of the main reasons I’m so annoyed about losing my photos. It’s basically a big Roman water tank but as with most things the Romans did they went a little over the top, this place is HUGE and totally reminded me of The Phantom of the Opera. Plus there’s a medusa’s head in there (In statue form people).

A quick pop back to my Hotel to jump into shorts & I was ready to do the bulk of the shopping I had to do for Friends & Family. I’ve already explained what shopping entails in Turkey, I’m glad I did it but will not be rushing out to do it again in a hurry. One of the highlights of the day was buying several lengths of cloth for mum off a guy that spoke NO English, not even yes or no; I’d like to think both of us had a ball with heaps of laughing, head shaking & sign language getting us through in the end. Also for the seemingly strict society their seemed to be an overabundance of lingerie stalls selling some decidedly dodgy outfits by appropriately shifty looking salesmen…The package is on its way to you Xavier

All too quickly it was time to head home; following my rule of getting home from a holiday on a Saturday to give you a day to readjust for work on Monday. Although I couldn’t leave Turkey without yet another brilliant Turkish Shave followed up by the Turkish Massage. Note for ignorant people like me: A Turkish massage is NOTHING like a Thai massage; no cute little Asian chick giving you a rub down here, think huge hairy Turkish guy beating the crap out of you, then throwing water on you & then locking you in a streamer for an hour or so (I think the steam stops the bruises showing.) Still I did feel surprisingly better up until I had to sit in one position for the 9 hour flight back home.