Follow Matthew's travels around the world…
Christmas Eve has come and gone, with a little indigestion and slightly fatter bellies all that we have to show for it. In our wake are two dozen Whitstable oysters, scallops, monkfish, a chocolate fondant and quite a few bottles of wine. In other words, the perfect way to start the season.
Back in the UK for a few days, and well rested after a week of wrapping-up the last of my Singapore project. Friday night was Aude’s Christmas party, and the first chance I really had to get into the Christmas spirit. Unlike last year (at the university dining hall, with catering to match), this year’s party was held at a local golf club and they did a really good job – good food, nice sized group, and a pretty good evening overall.
Few things suck quite as much as being sick when you’re on the road. I managed to catch a cold in Istanbul, and it’s managed to reach that really unpleasant stage where my nose runs constantly. I must have really looked poorly, because even my slave-driver of a client suggested that I should probably take myself home and get an early night (mind you, it was already 7:30pm, so it’s not like I was working a half-day or anything). I figure giving him my cold will be a sort of parting gift…
I’m using up the remains of the cold medicine I bought in Turkey. It seems effective enough, but I suspect it’s actual a combination of horse tranquillisers and morphine, because it leaves me high as a kite. So each morning you’ve got to make that fateful judgement call: do I suffer and sniffle all day with a clear head but a blocked nose, or do I take another sachet of the Turkish cold medicine and struggle through the day with a clear nose but a foggy head?
The second challenge with getting sick on the road is actually tucking yourself up in bed. It’s bad enough that there’s no one nearby to whinge to (in a last-ditch attempt for sympathy, I was even tempted to pour out my heart to the woman at room service, but was thwarted when she misunderstood my lamenting for “one prawn cocktail starter”). No, worse still is the fact that it’s awfully hard to find comfort food when you’re a long way from home. So you either have to drag yourself out someplace (not fun, especially when it’s pouring with rain outside) or you have to settle for what’s on offer at the hotel.
I’m back in the UK for an entire weekend, which seems like quite a luxury. After whinging (maybe a little too much) that I was only going to have 20 hours in the UK after being gone for nearly a month, my client (in an usual moment of displaying that he actually has some understanding of human compassion) suggested that I might spend the entire weekend in the UK and fly back out on Sunday night. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I promptly cancelled my Saturday flight and booked a Sunday flight instead.
I had an 8am flight out of Istanbul yesterday, which meant a 5am car – which meant a 4am start. And being a worrier, it actually meant that I was up at 2:30am, sleepless because I was afraid about oversleeping and missing my flight. In the end, there was no traffic – the airport was empty except for the families looking for information on their loved ones who were lost in the Atlasair crash. Quite a few police and ambulances were there as well to help with the grieving families. Not a great day to be flying out of Istanbul, all things considered.
My flight, thankfully, went without incident and I slept most of the way back to London. Heathrow threw up all its normal problems – no gates, problems with the jetway, and long waits for luggage – all of which meant that despite landing at 10:30am, I didn’t get to my car until nearly 1pm. I won’t miss flying out of Heathrow, that’s for sure.
I came home, cleared a huge pile of mail and filed my expenses – my normal routine after a long trip.
Our evening was lovely, with an invitation for dinner with Annmarie and Jiri to celebrate Annmarie’s birthday. Luckily Jiri had read my blog and knew that kebabs were probably off-limits – so instead he proposed a lovely dinner of Czech dumplings with beef. It was just what the doctor ordered.
PS – my new lens arrived while I was away, an early Christmas present to myself. I’m loving it!
After a long day of flying from the UK, with a very early start, Aude finally arrived in Istanbul early Friday evening. We headed down to Baghdad Street, on the Asian side, for a quick dinner of kebabs. Our cab driver was the worst that I’ve encountered in Istanbul – and that’s saying a lot. In the end, we got out and walked, fearing for both our lives and our stomachs if we continued on in the taxi.
I don’t know where this myth started about the Turks having great food. Sure, you can get your choice of lamb or chicken grilled to perfection at most places. But that’s about it for variety. Maybe a salad or some fish, grilled without any sauce. For the record, if I never eat Turkish food again, it will be too soon. The diet is one part of this country I certainly won’t miss. The Turkish have one of the highest smoking rates in Europe – nearly 90% of adults here smoke. And they have a correspondingly low life expectancy. But I suspect that their early death has nothing to do with their smoking – they smoke so they don’t have to eat their rubbish food, and eventually they face their millionth kebab and just give up the will to live.
Never mind. Aude had brought some champagne with her, so we had a few glasses and called it an early night back at the hotel.
Saturday morning, I hired a car and driver to spend the day with us. I did the same thing when I was in Sydney and Bangkok, and I remain convinced that this is the best way to see any city if you’re short on time. Our chauffeur whisked us off to the European side of Istanbul (via ferry, which was a nice way to get our first views of the old city) and then from one place to another, no waiting, no confusion, no language difficulties, and most importantly, no hassle. He even recommended a great fish restaurant for us at lunch. We had the terrace to ourselves, and had a great time watching the world go by.
Aude did a great job setting out our itinerary (I’m usually useless at things like this, and happily handed over the guide book and delegated all responsibility for planning our day, my role having ended at booking the car.) We took in all the big sights in the old city – the Topkapi Palace, the Aya Sofya, the Grand Bazaar, and the Egyptian Spice market. It was a great day out, and the weather stayed absolutely perfect for us.
I took loads of photos, but I’ve chosen a small handful for this website. I’ll stick the rest up later when I finally have some time.
Our first night out in Istanbul was a bit of a mixed bag, as we clearly struggled with both language difficulties and cultural norms. Based on the recommendation of the concierge at the hotel, we headed down to the harbour to find a restaurant. We didn’t have a specific place in mind, but we were told that there were plenty of good places and that we’d find one if we simply walked around the area.
After a few minutes of walking around, found a place that looked okay. There was a rather formidable woman in the window rolling dough and cooking something, and the place looked busy enough, so we went in.
Our first struggle was ordering a few beers. We ordered beers, and they were brought out for us – but they were weak and warm. After using our best sign language to indicate that we’d prefer cold beer, we were presented with a bucket of ice cubes! At this point, we sort of gave up on the beer idea and decided to order some wine as well. After considerable misunderstanding, the guests at the next table kindly stepped in and explained that the restaurant was Muslim and therefore didn’t serve any alcohol – which explained why our (apparently non-alcoholic) beer tasted so terrible. We reverted to tea.
The second problem was trying to explain that our colleague, Swami, was a vegetarian. The concept of a vegetarian is apparently unheard of in Turkey. After explaining politely to the waiter that ‘chicken’ wasn’t really a vegetarian option, we finally ended up ordering something from the big woman in the window – as best we can tell, it was some sort of bread with cheese and spinach. It wasn’t entirely successful, and Swami supplemented his dinner with a few bowls of peanuts at the bar we found afterwards.
Swami in the bar, enjoying a vegetarian diet of peanuts and beer…
We were drawn into the bar by the live music – which seemed like a good idea at the time. In fact, once you’ve heard the millionth song played on the lute with a dodgy Turkish singer, you’re about ready to shoot yourself. He kept turning to us and apparently asking for our requests, but as my Turkish is a little rusty, we weren’t able to comply. He seemed pretty disappointed that we weren’t singing along.
Our taxi ride back to the hotel was a little hair-raising, even by Turkish standards. I suspect we should have been tipped off by the sticker on the side of the cab. Hanging from the rear-view mirror was a shark’s tooth, which indicates slightly more risk-taking behaviour on the part of the taxi driver than, say, a crucifix. We made it back in one piece, but we were definitely more ‘shaken’ than ‘stirred’.
The hotel we’re staying at is brand new, but quality control doesn’t seem to have factored into the equation. Everything is falling apart despite its newness. The light switches are all wonky. The tap on the sink doesn’t work property. The tap on the shower came off the wall when I tried to turn it on. The air conditioning in the conference room doesn’t work. And the lights seem to go on and off at random intervals, plunging our conference room into darkness. At least it adds some excitement to the day.
Finally, a moment of light relief. Realise, of course, that I don’t normally use a bidet. And that I didn’t really intend to use a bidet. But curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to see how the combined toilet / bidet worked. Fast forward to a jet of water shooting out across the bathroom and out into the hallway and frantic mopping up with towels. I’ll stick to toilet paper, thanks.
