Blogs from Middle East - page 2

In 2020 Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the conversion of the city’s historic Hagia Sophia back into a mosque after a court annulled a 1934 presidential decree that made it a museum. Shortly after Turkey’s top administrative court released its long-anticipated decision Erdogan issued a presidential decree transferring the management of the site from the Ministry of Culture to the Presidency of Religious Affairs which paved the way for its conversion. Erdogan has been a major proponent of the move. I am not sure that the population were entirely happy as this was at odds with the idea of allying Turkey to the West and the EU . I wish we had visited before he had changed its status as viewing was going to be less of an experience than it could have been. There ... read more

It was a very strange night. We were woken up at around 2.00 in the morning due to lots of dogs barking, clearly sensitive to something that was going on. In the distance we could hear some noises, but they were, thankfully, a long way away. The only news channel we could get on the TV in our room was Aljazeera. It listed BBC World and CNN, but they didn't seem to have a signal. Aljazeera definitely has a certain bias, but not to the extent that you would expect and it seemed relatively objective. Most of the drones and missiles were intercepted, but, what was a little worrying, was that was most had been "before they reached Israeli airspace". I sincerely hope that doesn't mean over Jordan, who have nothing to do with it all. ... read more

Our first evening was a colourful noisy one . Istanbul was alive with people . Queues everywhere . We had no idea at times what they were queuing for . I might have been to attend the mosque and prayer . Women dressed in black , men talking and children added to the noise . We had lost track of time . Turkey was two hours ahead of us here in the UK and it was pitch black at 8.30. We were trying to acclimatise ourselves . We felt tired after our early morning start . Were overwhelmed with the sheer volume of people? Not really . Cities have that unique feeling and we have always avoided them in the van with the exception of Athens and a few scattered around France and Spain . We ... read more

Day 2 Monday morning early . Breakfast was served at 7.30. Breads, yoghurts, cheeses of every description, selections of cereals, jams and other nice things . Salad which seemed out of place . Fresh lemonade a feature of every restaurant . The bed had proved fine for me but rather hard for Glenn who prefers softer beds . Room service changed the towels . I would probably in the interests of recycling and reusing been happy to keep the old ones for another day . Room service came in three times during the day . Replacing towels on the first visit , replenishing coffee the second time round and a final third visit called room control . Never did find out what that was . I was accosted at breakfast by a guy who spoke to ... read more