Tuesday, August 24, 2004
turkish delights
okay, so the lowdown on istanbul.
the food is great, the weather is hot and wish you were here. oh, and it's cheap as well. knockout..
eating out. why is it that the people on the other tables always have much better and more interesting food? our ordering potential seems to be restricted to items the waiters know the english for, naturally the more expensive items. nevertheless we are practically locals when it comes to mealtimes now - a bit of mezze followed by fish, turkish sweets and turkish tea. oh, and bread - lots of bread. bread is cheap and free and keeps us within the all important budget (more of that later).
a weekend wouldn't be the same without a football match. not being able to make palace v everton, we settled instead for galatasaray v rizespor. we managed to persaude the touts we weren't the rich westerners they thought we were (remember, we have a budget to stick to..) and fınally they let us buy tickets for the cheap end. we had to wait while a female policewoman was summoned to give courtney the body search - i don't think they had seen many girls through the turnstiles. the football? well, the singing was the best i've seen, the sunset over the stadium was incredible, and for those that care about these type of things, galatasaray (including hakan suker and managed by a very enthusiastic georghi hagi) won 2-1.
being with the bird has meant that unfortunately we have had to go and see some of the sights and not spend the whole time in internet cafes reading the UK football news. palaces, mosques, churches, bazaars have all been done - even those (much to my displeasure) that charged an entrance fee. cruises up the bosphorus, shoppıng for carpets, playing backgammon in cafes. i'd say there was enough to do here to last a month if it didn't make me sound like the guide book. thankfully we've avoided the worst tour group excesses and stuck to our own off the beaten track agenda - or so we like to think when in peak self congratulatory mode.
the all important budget? well, 6 days in and we are slightly over budget. but only slightly so i can just about sleep at night. if i can manage to persaude courtney that we don't need a turkish carpet today (well, they are studenty and you can probably get them just as cheap and authentic in ikea..) then we may even move back into the black.
next steps.. in an error of huge proportions, we are flying east tonight at 11.30pm - just about the time that Palace kick off live on tv here against Chelsea. unfortunately i thought the game was Wednesday. we fly to Malatya which, for those with better things to do than look it up on an atlas, is in the east and near the Sryian and Iraq borders. Not that near though mother.. aparently we are going to see some big heads on a mountain that look good at sunset and sunrise. crucially they sound like they won't involve an entrance fee.
later....
the food is great, the weather is hot and wish you were here. oh, and it's cheap as well. knockout..
eating out. why is it that the people on the other tables always have much better and more interesting food? our ordering potential seems to be restricted to items the waiters know the english for, naturally the more expensive items. nevertheless we are practically locals when it comes to mealtimes now - a bit of mezze followed by fish, turkish sweets and turkish tea. oh, and bread - lots of bread. bread is cheap and free and keeps us within the all important budget (more of that later).
a weekend wouldn't be the same without a football match. not being able to make palace v everton, we settled instead for galatasaray v rizespor. we managed to persaude the touts we weren't the rich westerners they thought we were (remember, we have a budget to stick to..) and fınally they let us buy tickets for the cheap end. we had to wait while a female policewoman was summoned to give courtney the body search - i don't think they had seen many girls through the turnstiles. the football? well, the singing was the best i've seen, the sunset over the stadium was incredible, and for those that care about these type of things, galatasaray (including hakan suker and managed by a very enthusiastic georghi hagi) won 2-1.
being with the bird has meant that unfortunately we have had to go and see some of the sights and not spend the whole time in internet cafes reading the UK football news. palaces, mosques, churches, bazaars have all been done - even those (much to my displeasure) that charged an entrance fee. cruises up the bosphorus, shoppıng for carpets, playing backgammon in cafes. i'd say there was enough to do here to last a month if it didn't make me sound like the guide book. thankfully we've avoided the worst tour group excesses and stuck to our own off the beaten track agenda - or so we like to think when in peak self congratulatory mode.
the all important budget? well, 6 days in and we are slightly over budget. but only slightly so i can just about sleep at night. if i can manage to persaude courtney that we don't need a turkish carpet today (well, they are studenty and you can probably get them just as cheap and authentic in ikea..) then we may even move back into the black.
next steps.. in an error of huge proportions, we are flying east tonight at 11.30pm - just about the time that Palace kick off live on tv here against Chelsea. unfortunately i thought the game was Wednesday. we fly to Malatya which, for those with better things to do than look it up on an atlas, is in the east and near the Sryian and Iraq borders. Not that near though mother.. aparently we are going to see some big heads on a mountain that look good at sunset and sunrise. crucially they sound like they won't involve an entrance fee.
later....
// posted by courtney and pete @ 10:13 
Comments:
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So hey - how come I'm alsways first? Is it because the rest of the western world doesn't get up before sunrise? Pete, about that carpet - it might be just as authentic at IKEA but how often do you get to buy one at an authentic Turkish bazaar? It's a shopaholic's dream! My big question is - How in the hell are you planning to get it home? You could always ship it to my house - I'll look after it for you :-)
Sorry about the foot ball - maybe someone can tape ALL the matches for you and, when you get back, you'll have a whole season's worth waiting for you! Court can curl up on her authentic Turkish carpet and read 1000 books!! :-)
Have fun, keep safe,
Aunt Sharon
Sorry about the foot ball - maybe someone can tape ALL the matches for you and, when you get back, you'll have a whole season's worth waiting for you! Court can curl up on her authentic Turkish carpet and read 1000 books!! :-)
Have fun, keep safe,
Aunt Sharon
# posted by 
: 12:05 pm
: 12:05 pm
Can't believe you actually found some football! But, Pete! "the bird"! Words can't express!!!!
Photos and text are GREAT!
Love you!
The bird's Mom
Photos and text are GREAT!
Love you!
The bird's Mom
# posted by : 2:22 pm
: 2:22 pm
hey - guys well done! This time 'my' team got the comments up first... usually one of pete's gets there fırst!
xox Court
xox Court
# posted by : 3:20 pm
: 3:20 pm
Pete
Just been told I can't watch all Palace's games on sky at home, just for you, even if I don't even support them. I managed to catch a glimpse tonight and you were losing 1-0 to the habitually boring Chelsea, but that was during the ad break for CSI something... So came up to play on computer - like your blogspot...
Juanita came up and looked at the pictures, but lost interest when there were none of her - which I explained would be pretty tricky if she isn't in Istanbul, but there you go.
We had the first Old Theonians' 10th Anniversary ball committee meeting last night. You were missed. Do you think you could come back to London on April 23rd for that one?
All looks good - you are missing massive olympic fever in UK - especially with Kelly making up for Paula's failure.
Courtney - hope you are well - I am sure my next comment will be less football related!
Just been told I can't watch all Palace's games on sky at home, just for you, even if I don't even support them. I managed to catch a glimpse tonight and you were losing 1-0 to the habitually boring Chelsea, but that was during the ad break for CSI something... So came up to play on computer - like your blogspot...
Juanita came up and looked at the pictures, but lost interest when there were none of her - which I explained would be pretty tricky if she isn't in Istanbul, but there you go.
We had the first Old Theonians' 10th Anniversary ball committee meeting last night. You were missed. Do you think you could come back to London on April 23rd for that one?
All looks good - you are missing massive olympic fever in UK - especially with Kelly making up for Paula's failure.
Courtney - hope you are well - I am sure my next comment will be less football related!
# posted by : 9:47 pm
: 9:47 pm
well that's quite a schoolboy error - but it may have softened the blow of the result. you'll be pleased to note that derby crashed at lincoln
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