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....
no sign of bomb damage here (on this sýde at least!) 
a kid ýn a candy store (marzipan shopping for nan)
family corner
here are some pictures of everyone from the other week. apologıes to those left out but not forgotten - dad, matthew, melissa (though you appear elsewhere!), grandma m, auntie sharon, garth, nan c, nan d (hope you get out of hospital soon) and liz. it was only cause we didn't have a photo of you on our disc!
