Crowds, cursing, a candle and choosing not to haggle

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I've never really liked people generally. I like some of course, hell I even married one! But generally all people do is get in my way, wear horrendous things, do horrendous things and get in my way again. A lot of them are quite keen on occupying the same physical space as me too which is even more annoying. And if I find whoever made this keyboard where the spacebar only works if you smack it with a hammer...I'll smack you with a hammer. Quid pro quo and all that!



There have been a lot of people getting in my way around Istanbul today as you may ascertain from the opening paragraph. I'm not much for crowds and today has been very crowded but this is no excuse for not looking where you're going or pushing past me as some git did at the turnstiles at Ayasofia. I will find you and....okay so I won't but I wish you'd understood English so my slating your rudeness hadn't been wasted.



The day began with a walk down a steep hill and ended with taking an underground funicular train back up it as we were so knackered by then. Or we wanted to try out another form of transport. You decide.



After grabbing some round bready thing and some freshly squeezed orange juice (just one lira each) on the way down we sussed out using one of the modern trams and were soon wending our way to Sultanahmet district. Our first port of call was the Blue Mosque, a bargain as it was free and they let you take pictures inside. Claire was made to cover her head and shoulders but at least her long shorts were acceptable here. At a later visit to another mosque there were explanations about different aspects of Islam but nothing explained why women are treated as second class citizens. The men's praying area is huge but the women are made to hang out in a manky area at the back and one completely covered Muslim woman was shouted at for entering the large area in the Blue Mosque.



After the Blue Mosque we joined yet another queue to get into Ayasofia. This really is a bad time of year to be here with the heat and so many tourists pulling stupid faces for photos. I'm thinking it might be just me who likes pictures of the things you've come to see without someone gurning in the foreground. Some of them just frown and look like they'd rather be having their genital areas waxed than being where they are. So what's the point? We know you were there, you took the photo, why would anyone want your miserable mug ruining the shot? Here's me blocking the Eiffel Tower....here's me completely getting in the way of Mount Fuji....etc etc



I'm sure you can guess that they were getting in my way as well....



Okay we do it sometimes but not every five yards and I usually try and get Claire in the shot as no-one wants to see my ugly mug in there unless I'm doing something hilarious. So....anyway....Hagia Sofia....



'You can't fail to be staggered by the decorated high ceiling' Claire's guide book says. They were wrong. Claire did fail. She was mildly impressed, but nowhere near staggered. If only they'd tried harder back then. Maybe the ubiquitous scaffolding didn't help although we should be used to that by now as they wheel it around to wherever we are. Gits.



Once out of there we went to the apparently world famous pudding shop and didn't have any puddings. Rebels to the end! The food was good though, not too expensive and the service friendly so can't complain.



Next port of call was the truly world famous Grand Bazaar. Now be warned, this is NOT bargain central. A small decorative dagger I liked the look of was quoted at starting at $170! Now I know there would be haggling involved but starting at such a stupid price is ridiculous and any sensible person would just walk away. Even I did.



Is there really any need for all this haggling? Stick a price on it and I'll stop if I like the look of it. If I want to buy it I will but I don't want to go through all the hassle just to get a reasonable price. I saw a big key for sale, asked how much, he said 35 lira, I walked away and it had dropped to 20 before I was out of earshot. I saw the same key at a shop outside the bazaar, asked how much, he said 10, I bought it. Simple!!



We then wandered through the area where the locals buy their goods and this place was so busy that even mopeds or taxis didn't attempt to get through. Very unusual here as I'm sure we've had both passing through our hotel room. We both hate crowds and couldn't wait to get out so we radioed our mate Toorgood who got us a helicopter to airlift us out. I'm not much for clambering up that rope ladder but it was worth it.



Or we may have just found our way out eventually....it was definitely one of those two things.



Somehow we managed to find our way to Suleymaniye mosque which again is very impressive. Prayers were just beginning so we waited in the courtyard until we were free to take our shoes off and cover shoulders and heads if we were female. Inside there were people looking miserable or gurning for photos that I would find much more insensitive to any religion than a woman's uncovered head. Again it was pretty impressive inside....apart from the women's prayer area of course.



We wandered into the poor part of town where I felt very uncomfortable with two cameras hanging from my shoulders. We were lost again of course but eventually found our way out of quite upsetting poverty so close to such affluence.



At the beginning I mentioned about people wearing horrendous things so...



There is no excuse ANYWHERE for wearing socks with sandals or flip-flops or, even worse, those vile, should be banned, crocs things. You wear a sandal or flip-flops to let air get to your feet, you wear crocs because you don't like yourself. So, why would you put socks on if you're wanting to let air get to your feet?? Germany was the worst for this but I have been very disappointed by the amount of Turks failing so miserably in the fashion and 'caring about yourself' stakes. I thought better of you. Stop it.



We walked over a different bridge than yesterday and eventually found the aforementioned underground funicular railway. At the top we still had some way to go and, as walked, I noticed there were no lights on in a lot of the shops. There is no electricity in our hotel either so the power cut is quite widespread and has been going on for about two hours now.



The kindly hotel lady offered us a candle....but had nothing to light it with....so here we are, sitting by the lights of our iphones typing our blogs. Some places have generators but most are blacked out with fridges and freezers gradually getting warmer. If there weren't so many damned people about I might go and see if there are any special offers on ice cream!

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Photos

Wrong
Very, VERY wrong