(I'm posting these really close together, I know. It's because I write them offline and I forgot to upload them. If you're playing at home you'll want to read the other post first. :) )
Drivers in Turkey are insane. It doesn't matter how big the vehicle they're driving is, they'll dodge and weave like they're on a superbike. It's quite a thing to see. Anyway for the ride home from the airport we were in a mini bus, so we were at the upper end of the size range for suicidal vehicles and felt relatively safe.
Heather was clever enough to get us a hostel right in the middle of Sultanahmet, which is the most interesting part of Istanbul. It's got the palace and the blue mosque. There's another big mosque that I call the red mosque which is supposed to be the biggest or something, but for some reason we didn't go see that one. I liked to think the blue mosque and the red mosque would occasionally get some capture the flag action going between them. There are labyrinthine gardens and walls all over the place between them so it would be way cool.
There are two big bazaars in that part of Istanbul. The Grand Bazaar, which is full of clothes and jewellery and antiques, and the spice bazaar, which is full of ninjas, but you can't see them because they're hiding in the spices.
You have to haggle in the bazaars, which I'd never really done before except for when I bought Gus (the Hilux, for those not personally familiar with my last, most awesome, car). Heather was very good at it. She got a scarf down to 10 lira from like 35. I didn't do quite as well but it's hard to tell because I have a policy of never checking the price of something I've already bought somewhere else. I bought a wallet and a pair of sunnies and a leather jacket. I lost the sunnies two days later. I'm up to my fifth pair of sunnies this holiday.
Our hostel had a rooftop bar, and on the Sunday night there was a 15 lira barbecue up there. As is usually the case, it turned out that 90% of the hostel patrons were Australian. We made friends with a bunch of Brisbanians and had a lovely time.
After the food there was a belly dancer. She made her money by jiggling about, as you do, then doing some audience participation stuff which was pretty funny, then all but forcing us to jam notes into her outfit. Seriously, she was very insistent. She was, admittedly, very cute, so I'm not complaining, but since I didn't have any small notes it was probably the most expensive part of the evening.
After filling us with beer and lamb they piled us all in a bus and took us to the night life in Istanbul. The first place had a proper live band and played proper Turkish music. I liked it. I particularly liked the part where they sold me a triple scotch for 7 lira (5 bucks). The second place had a live band who played Turkish music until they realised we were all Aussies and then switched to some pretty awesome covers of English-lyrics songs. I ordered a Bloody Mary there but it was pretty awful. I think the tomato juice needed some extra salt or something. Or maybe it just had way too much alcohol in it. In retrospect, judging by the degree to which I was dancing like a spastic, I'm beginning to think it may have been the latter.
I'm getting bored now, so I'll have to write about the part where I totally kick Justin's arse at go-cart racing another time.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Exodus 2010
Last time I wrote one of these I was in Dublin. I think it was January 2008, two and a half years ago. This time I've just left Dublin on the train to Galway. I'm only doing it because there's nothing decent left to watch on my laptop and I forgot to bring a book.
Anyway, I suppose I should start at the start. The flight stopped in Singapore on the way over and I'd already exchanged all my Aussieland fun-bucks for pounds, so I had to pay for my beer with a fiver. The nice man gave me change in the form of a two Singapore dollar note. I still have it in my wallet. It occurs to me that it's not actually going to be enough to buy another beer on the return leg, whenever that may be.
I sat next to a lady from the Australian Women's Wheelchair Basketball team on the way over. Her name was Liesel I think. They were on their way to the world championships in Birmingham. I told them her I'd watch it on BBC 3 but I was in Turkey while it was on so I didn't. Sorry Liesel. So even in economy class there's a chance you'll sit next to some national sporting types on a QANTAS plane. Yay. Oh and A380s are awesome. You get laptop power even in economy and there's a camera on the tail so you can watch them land. I heard an Englishman whinging about the landing at Heathrow and quietly wondered how well he would do trying to land a small office block on a road without spilling everybody's tea. I suspect quite badly.
Upon landing in Heathrow I instantly felt at home. I think it was the long queue for immigration. Then I had to catch 3 trains and a bus to get back to Justin and Meri's in Herne Hill, which I did in record time despite some unexpected and unexplained tube stoppages along the way. You know you're a Londoner when the train slows down before Brixton and you think "wait a second it hasn't been long enough since Stockwell, we'll be sitting here a while".
Anyway Meri was home that day because an electrician came around to mend some lights. She had to stick around and couldn't go to the pub so I wandered up to Sainsbury's and got us some Pimm's and associated materials. When I came home I complained that the Sainsbury's in East Dulwich no longer has Tim Tams. At this point the electrician piped up and said "Meredith, I think I have to tell you my secret". Needless to say we tabled our Pimm's and awaited keenly. He did not disappoint. Turns out he used to be an actor living in Sydney, and he was the original Tim Tam genie. Sadly, though, he could not furnish us with Tim Tams any more than East Dulwich Sainsbury's, so we had to be content with our Pimm's and strawberries and brie.
I realise I've written nearly a page and I've only made it to the end of the first day, but it's a long way to Galway. :P
Now, I worked in Covent Garden for over a year. It's about 3 blocks away from the British Museum, but I only went once and it was near closing time so we only got to spend about 45 minutes there. I had one day in London to spare before Heather and I jetted off to Turkey, so I thought I'd start nice and early and get a full day of wanderin' in. It's amazing. If you haven't, see it. I particularly liked the clock room. There's this one clock with a ball bearing that keeps hopeless time but is totally cool. There are mummies and Rosetta Stones and all that too that you can see if you must.
My feet started to hurt after about 2 hours so I had to quit. I got myself a haircut, 'cos I needed one, and the extremely gay man that cut my hair also elected to trim my eyebrows. Nobody's ever done that before. I also bought some Doc Marten's to replace the ones I got just before I left, and had a sandwich at Earl's, which is the sandwich shop I used to go to when I worked in Covent Garden. I was disappointed though, because the soup of the day was Tomato, which is pretty much the only one I never liked.
That night I met up with Heather and Steve in King's Cross (or Islington, or wherever). They helped me remember how much better Czech beer is than anything we have in Australia. Honestly, I'd gone off beer a bit in Aus, but I could drink Budwar all day. (I'll be sinking a fair amount of Guinness in Galway tonight too!)
The next day I met up with Heather and did a bit of shopping, and then we went off to the airport and the real holiday started.
Anyway, I suppose I should start at the start. The flight stopped in Singapore on the way over and I'd already exchanged all my Aussieland fun-bucks for pounds, so I had to pay for my beer with a fiver. The nice man gave me change in the form of a two Singapore dollar note. I still have it in my wallet. It occurs to me that it's not actually going to be enough to buy another beer on the return leg, whenever that may be.
I sat next to a lady from the Australian Women's Wheelchair Basketball team on the way over. Her name was Liesel I think. They were on their way to the world championships in Birmingham. I told them her I'd watch it on BBC 3 but I was in Turkey while it was on so I didn't. Sorry Liesel. So even in economy class there's a chance you'll sit next to some national sporting types on a QANTAS plane. Yay. Oh and A380s are awesome. You get laptop power even in economy and there's a camera on the tail so you can watch them land. I heard an Englishman whinging about the landing at Heathrow and quietly wondered how well he would do trying to land a small office block on a road without spilling everybody's tea. I suspect quite badly.
Upon landing in Heathrow I instantly felt at home. I think it was the long queue for immigration. Then I had to catch 3 trains and a bus to get back to Justin and Meri's in Herne Hill, which I did in record time despite some unexpected and unexplained tube stoppages along the way. You know you're a Londoner when the train slows down before Brixton and you think "wait a second it hasn't been long enough since Stockwell, we'll be sitting here a while".
Anyway Meri was home that day because an electrician came around to mend some lights. She had to stick around and couldn't go to the pub so I wandered up to Sainsbury's and got us some Pimm's and associated materials. When I came home I complained that the Sainsbury's in East Dulwich no longer has Tim Tams. At this point the electrician piped up and said "Meredith, I think I have to tell you my secret". Needless to say we tabled our Pimm's and awaited keenly. He did not disappoint. Turns out he used to be an actor living in Sydney, and he was the original Tim Tam genie. Sadly, though, he could not furnish us with Tim Tams any more than East Dulwich Sainsbury's, so we had to be content with our Pimm's and strawberries and brie.
I realise I've written nearly a page and I've only made it to the end of the first day, but it's a long way to Galway. :P
Now, I worked in Covent Garden for over a year. It's about 3 blocks away from the British Museum, but I only went once and it was near closing time so we only got to spend about 45 minutes there. I had one day in London to spare before Heather and I jetted off to Turkey, so I thought I'd start nice and early and get a full day of wanderin' in. It's amazing. If you haven't, see it. I particularly liked the clock room. There's this one clock with a ball bearing that keeps hopeless time but is totally cool. There are mummies and Rosetta Stones and all that too that you can see if you must.
My feet started to hurt after about 2 hours so I had to quit. I got myself a haircut, 'cos I needed one, and the extremely gay man that cut my hair also elected to trim my eyebrows. Nobody's ever done that before. I also bought some Doc Marten's to replace the ones I got just before I left, and had a sandwich at Earl's, which is the sandwich shop I used to go to when I worked in Covent Garden. I was disappointed though, because the soup of the day was Tomato, which is pretty much the only one I never liked.
That night I met up with Heather and Steve in King's Cross (or Islington, or wherever). They helped me remember how much better Czech beer is than anything we have in Australia. Honestly, I'd gone off beer a bit in Aus, but I could drink Budwar all day. (I'll be sinking a fair amount of Guinness in Galway tonight too!)
The next day I met up with Heather and did a bit of shopping, and then we went off to the airport and the real holiday started.
New Trip!
Well, I've started again. When I'm not having fun and I've got no Internet and no good book to read, I'll try to get some stories written down, mostly so I can remember them, but hopefully some of you will enjoy them too. :)
This blog will almost certainly move to my proper hosting in the next few weeks.
This blog will almost certainly move to my proper hosting in the next few weeks.
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