The Swing of Things

There is a quote from Samuel Johnson that says "Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." I love London and whole heartedly agree with the quote except for 2 things, one that London is expensive and secondly that London is cold. (BROOOOOOM) I’m looking forward to some cheaper living and lots more warm weather! It feel so good to be travelling again, I have missed it so much.

We are staying in the old town of Istanbul, right near most of the major tourist attractions and have spent the yesterday and today walking around everywhere. (BROOOOOOM). We had our first rip off experience today at lunch, where they tried to pull two things off at once. Firstly when we had finished our lunch, I asked for the bill and was told it would come in a minute and instead we were brought two apple teas, which were actually quite good but when the bill came they had been added to the bill and then when I added the bill up, they had made a terrible math error in their favour. (BROOOOOOM) I left the exact amount it should have been, and handed it to the waiter to count, which he did and then made an angry face as we walked out of the restaurant. Don’t mess with an accountant!

Istanbul sits in both Asia and Europe and I found out today that for the last 2 years I have been unknowingly lying about my last trip here. (BROOOOOOM) I was certain that I had been to both the European and Asian sides, when in fact I have only been to the European side! I hope to rectify that this week by taking the ferry over to the Asian side.

So far we have been to the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, Basilica Cistern, the Archaeology Museum and the Galata Tower. If you were wondering what all the BROOOOOOM’s were about, that’s just the train passing outside our window. Apparently it’s in 60 of the 70 reviews and we missed that, oops. Luckily we have now been able to move to the front side of the hotel where the train noise isn’t as noticeable.

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On The Road Again

After spending the last 20 months in London, and working the last 15 of those, I have decided it’s time to move on to other pastures. All of my stuff is packed up and has been sent off to New Zealand where it will hopefully meet me in a couple of weeks assuming of course that the slow boat it is aboard doesn’t run into any rocks and throw my stuff all over the ocean.

I had an absolutely amazing time while living in London. I made countless friends many of whom I know I will be friends with forever. London was a great place for getting to Europe easily and was overall just amazing in itself. For the rest of my life whenever I see a photo of the London Eye and Big Ben, I will point to the bottom left hand corner of the photo and proclaim “that is where I used to work!”. Enough of the sappy sadness though, I have quit my job and sold my stuff; its time to get back out there on the road for some more travelling adventures!

My new adventures start in a familiar place, Istanbul, but I’m joined by a new face, my beautiful girlfriend, Janelle. Off we go! More to come of our Adventures in the next few days.