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Published: August 13th 2007
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Sublime Skyline
Istanbul quickly became beautiful, though I didn't get too close to the mosque, it was stunning from afar. Well, that's Europe done. I'm writing this from steaming hot Kuala Lumpur, about a week after stepping off of the plane from Istanbul.
With the Butterfly Effect shrugged off (despite my reservation having been cancelled somewhere along the re-scheduling line, but rebooked on the spot), I have made it to Asia. However, I wanted to write a final post on Europe because it's neat enough to say now that a chapter has finished, a page turned and all those other cliches. Sigh, I love them. And that's why on this blog, I'm gonna hit two birds with one stone. The End of Europe (Istanbul) and the Beginning of Asia (Singapore). *edit* I'm gonna split these up, writing up Singapore in the next blog.
*** On a side note, the pictures for this section will be put up at some point in the near future - no USB again ***
Istanbul
The train out of Bucharest was stinking hot, but I had a two-bed sleeper to myself for once. It was genuinely sad to say goodbye to Romania, not tears or anything - I'm a rugged man goddamnit -, but i'd had a great time, met some really nice
Coffee and Cigarettes
With coffee as my shield and cigarettes as my sword, I can conquer any city. people and all in all it was three weeks well spent. Everything went smoothly until the border with Turkey. Transit through Bulgaria was a piece of cake, just a wave of the passport and a "hullo, I'm terribly English" wins most people over. It was a shame I didn't spend more time in Bulgaria... twelve hours on the interior of a train doesn't really cut it as visiting anyway, so I'm scribbling that in for another time. Veliko Tarnovo was on my hitlist prior to the delays in Bucharest, and as luck would have it, the train passed through on the way to Istanbul. Cruel trainmasters that they are stopped for five minutes but no-one was allowed off. I had to make do with pressing my face against the glass like a weirdo and trying to crane for a better view of the gorge city. Next time.
Oh, the turkish border. Well, the train stopped and everyone had to file off and go and get passport stamps and a visa. Well, what can I say but I seem to have something of a fluke gene in me where I magically have the right amount of money in my pocket,
Mosque Again!
Worth a second shot. in the right currency for the task at hand. Despite having a wad of Romanian Lei (which just doesn't cut it out of the country), I'd stuffed a crusty twenty euro bill in the back of my shorts, which had already ripped in half and been mended with trusty sellotape (no-one else up to this point had taken it, and yes, I tried and tried). So, it was all or nothing and I had practiced my turnaround and "please help me" to the writhing queue of Turkish snakes behind me...
But, it went through. I got my precious little sticker and trudged back to the train and back to sleep. I was woken up again by the border guard for a final check and said I didn't have the stamp. Well, with about six minutes to the train leaving, I had to sprint across the tracks and use hand signals to try and weave my way through a kaleidoscope of Europeans to the front of the stamps line. And I haven't sprinted in a few years.
Well, to cut a long story shorter, I made it back with about fifteen seconds before the engine began to pull away.
The beginning of the Grand Bazarr
It was a true maze of stall-based-silver-selling action. Now getting stuck on the Turkish border would have been funny, but not this time.
8.00am and into the Istanbul morning heat, which is the worst kind, because you know for the next few hours it's only going to get hotter and hotter. It's so very English to complain about the weather all the time (and secretly I really like it... and I only complain to you guys on this blog, but its not really complaining, more like shared bickering... or meteorological gossip). Okay, anyway, what the hell am I typing?
I want more time for Istanbul. I hit all the main sights in the fourteen hours that I had available. All the big mosques etc etc. Very beautiful and very big (as you can/will see in the pictures). The Grand Bazaar was awesome. I got lost very quickly. Following shiny objects is a bad way to navigate. I sat myself down, had a real lemonade and watched the scurrying of the people all around me. I thought it was a semi-myth about the carpet sellers being so numerous, but streuth, there's a lot of them. I watched one guy drag the same carpet in a loop for
My sit-down view...
Enclosed by posh knock-off tea sets! the duration of my sit down. I wondered if he was lost too.
After escaping the Bazaar, I sat under the main bridge (which sounds bad, but wait) where they have lines of bars and fish stalls. I grabbed a beer and watched the fish being reeled up past me to the bridge above. Nice. A grilled fish sandwich followed, which tasted beautiful, so good that I wandered onto a tour boat to finish it. A gruelling hour and forty later (I should have gone to the toilet before boarding), I was back on dry land after having been shown what I was leaving behind in Istanbul.
I had a kebab, which was a little disappointing purely from a quantity perspective. Taste wise, sure, it was a good-un, but my mind has been warped by those Cappadocia tricksters in Edinburgh. Hmmm. I'm hungry again! Thankfully, that's almost the taxi to the airport, using the last of my Turkish money in the bar (did I mention I'd drank an awful lot of beer at this point?) and boarding the plane, then waking up suddenly with everyone eating breakfast around me, somewhere above India.
And that is where this
Every inch is used
Each little space of wall is crammed with everything you imagine. blog ends.
Thanks again to everyone for all their comments so far - they really do help keep me sane. And they remind me to take the meal shots... so many times I've just launched into the food and realised I should have taken a picture.
Next up... Singapore!
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Louise Ross
non-member comment
$$$
I would of paid good money you see you sprinting Thomas Hughes