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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