The Candy Shop

We brought our flight forward to the weekend to meet Claire and her boyfriend Jonathan, who made the trip from London for a few days. Istanbul made for a nice reprieve, suddenly we were in an (almost) European city. Claire had booked us in to a place at the end of Istiklal Caddesi, so we were right in the thick of it. Cobbled pedestrian roads, music shops, book stores, cafes and buskers everywhere. Packed fulla cultcha.

Here they are, two sisters and an unsuspecting Englishman, in the shadow of Galata Tower, right by our home for the week.

The view from our hostel room, looking to Europe over the Bosphorous and around to Galata Tower.

The Londoners had us on the move for the four days. Claire had a list. This picture is from the grounds of the 'Blue Mosque', looking towards the great Aya Sofia.

Inside the mosque, I came across this beautiful local woman. I also admired the amazing tile and glass work in every aspect of its interior.

The local woman accompanied me outside and we found Jonathan had been mistaken for Justin Timberlake by a group of Turkish school girls. This is only one of many celebrity shots taken here.

The old couple, resting their bones.

What the old couple saw as they rested - the 'Blue Mosque'.

Claire, equipped with candy, commentary and Claridge.

Inside Aya Sofia, we were stunned by the scale of the interior, and especially the age. UNESCO are hard at it, restoring the roof, with possibly the grandest scaffolding I've ever seen. Here I'm pretending to know what I'm talking about to a London architect.

We wandered back over the bridge, ducking every time one of these blokes cast his line, back to Asia and relaxed before the World Cup late that night. Saffas and Poms packed in to two nearby smokey pubs and stretched their neck muscles to watch the end of the series that didn't quite catch the attention of the Turkish population.


A trip to the spice bazaar, big bazaar, the Design and Technology museum as well as selfless research into local beers and cuisine meant we were all a bit beat by the third day so off to the Hamam. We had the option of visiting the same place as Cameron Diaz and her like but found this one to be much more appealing. A little off the track, the two men in towels behind the desk drinking tea were a little surprised by Lisa and my entrance, but they agreed that we should come back after six, when they would shut the doors for the four of us to be 'bathed'. At about $30 a head, we received an amazing experience, being scrubbed, lathered, massaged like he wanted to squeeze the muscles out of our toe nails, all on a big heated central marble altar over three hours. Steam and suds washed away, we were served tea, talked about the deaths that had just made the news and played with his three kittens. The place seemed to have a similar maintenance budget to a suburban Sydney squash court which only added to the charm.

On our last night together, we had a kebab and beer picnic under Galata Tower, while boys played football in the courtyard and stray cats sniffed around our ankles for crumbs. It was good to see Claire after over a year apart and look forward to seeing more of Jonathan.

Lisa and I spent a few days more in Istanbul, soaking up the atmosphere and slowing back down. The protests about the PKK issue escalated, to the point where bus loads of riot police were on hand throughout Istiklal Caddesi. It was peaceful but passionate.

We got on a bus to make the pilgrimage to the battle fields of Gallipoli. Staying in Canakkale, we wandered around for a few days there before returning to join a tour of the peninsula. The tour, unsurprisingly, comprised of Aussies and Kiwis, who were good easy company. Our Turkish guide was excellent and had met enough ANZACs to successfully incorporate a little humour into the presentations. Walking through trenches, seeing Lone Pine and sitting on ANZAC cove was moving and memorable, putting into perspective all the history lessons and ANZAC days we'd lived through.

Before I knew it, Lisa had organised a bit of a do and six Sydneysiders found themselves having dinner together. The couple at the front, Chris and Nicole, celebrated their birthdays on either side of midnight, so we helped them celebrate. Besides a questionable establishment trying to overcharge us for a dodgy bottle of pre-opened wine, we enjoyed the home-grown company on a day when I felt proud but equally mystified by WWI.

We made a fairly major decision over the next few days. We would head into Eastern Europe rather than further into Turkey. The 'busyness' of the trail we found ourselves on meant that we too often felt like we were paying and excessive 'tourist tax' for every move we made. Turkey, for us, would be better visited with more money and, ideally, our own car or camper.

Off to the border, Edirne, where we could cross over into Bulgaria. Here, Lisa enjoys some Turkish delight after she took me to the candy shop.

We ended up staying in this town for five days, and in many ways it was just as much a highlight as the other two stops but for different reasons. Apart from one tourist Lisa spoke to in the info office, we seemed to have arrived in a place where tourists, like ourselves, were missing as they rushed through to elsewhere. The town was full of charming people, interested in our being there, and keen to give us tips on what to visit. We got around on foot and enjoyed the novelty of rugging up as the temperature dropped. The photo above is of my increasingly bad habit of trying to offload a certain currency in its own country rather than visiting a dirty exchange in the next. We had a look in this taverna type restaurant and decided it would do, the people looked happy and warm. Upstairs, we were sat next to this friendly group of men, the nearest to me spoke to us a little and called his girl who is a Turkish English teacher. She arrived, Lisa got to talking, the band played and there we were, eating and drinking away with this lot. The music was fantastic, the front man a real showman. A great night out.

We visited many of the local 'Mimar Sinan' designed mosques. This one, the Bayezid II Complex, had a health museum within its grounds that had won the 2004 EU museum of the year prize and was a fascinating look into the use of alternative medicines (like music and herbs) at the same time the mentally ill were being burnt at the stake in Western Europe.

This baker and I became friends, he sold me water for less than the supermarket and his date and cinnamon rolls made for a pretty rich but very satisfying breakfast, washed down with his sugary tea. I'm proudly wearing a t shirt made by some of my students when I left who had treated themselves at many bakeries with me over the years on our DoE trips. The tour continues.