GULHANE PARK

 A few of ny previous pics display the immaculate GULHANE PARK running from the harbour area right up to central Sultanhamet.

On both mornings I've run along the promenade and then up through the park where just hours ago,thousands of people were out in droves.

7:30 am and not a scrap of litter to be seen     their municipal workers had already completed the task,and could be seen heading home.

T

hese guys are probably paid a fraction of the salaries paid to our own municipal "workers" but they get the job done in a fraction of the time (if ever?)

A LOKANTA as per the colourful pic of local turkish food is a restaurant just outside of the main Sultanhamet area.

As can be seen on the price board attached to the exterior, the average plate of delicious food costs little more than around R40..the price of acup of coffee at home.

Yesterday ,being a Saturday,this place (and every other place) was packed to the hilt with locals.

 

Hi

Started the day with an early morning jog along the promenade,.... already packed with locals either fishing or doing their thing where they dive in the water, upcurrent.....and get dragged at a rate of knots downstream,...and alight around 2km  away,....and then make yheir way back to the beginning again ,...chatting en route back.

Yesterday and today (friday/Saturday) are obviously family occasions where all and sundry are out in  the main Sultanhamet square ,or down at the harbour.socialising,

,eating,and enjoying each other......in total safety!

There is clearly absolutely no chance of someone in these crowds kidnapping ones kid,....or being attacked by some lunatic.

In SA we hear costantly of "social compacting",... our government should look to Turkey for the meaning of this term.

The BIG difference here,.....if you get caught,you account!

There are young,fit looking cops visible everywhere,.....and many of them are young women,who look (like the general population) very happy with life.

No toyi toying wherever you kook here!Just a lot of very happy looking people?(

We genuinly feel safer here than almost any other european country.

And definitely a thousand times safer than in our own.

Tomorrow were off to Antalya on the overnight bus and shall be taking the extremy  efficient tram and metro to the bus depot,.....yet another thing we can only dream of.

Everything here is so much less expensive than SA.

Well everything that counts that is.

We bought 1kg of awesome grspes yesterday at the grocery store for a mere R6.

In SA it would've cost R70 for the same grapes.

A barista coffee with a pastry,...   R25,.. .in SA just a coffee as much as R350 That's it for today,.....tomorrow off to the south,.   ANTALYA,..  another of our favourite towns in Turkey

 

2nd day ISTANBUL

 

Temp here yesterday was around  27 degrees and it's a little cooler today at 26 degreesWe went across to a sports bar today to watch the boks drill the aussies......what a pleasure....shows you what we can do when that dickhead coach chooses the best front row in the world rather than placing them o  the bench.

I mean,.... who the hell chooses the 2nd team against the ll blacks and the wallabies??????

As a matter of fact ,....the starting match 23 today matches,...almost exactly that chosen by Mark Keohane during the week.

Someone must've been listening.

ISTANBUL AGAIN

It's been 5 long years since we last visited one of our favourite cities on the planet.

After a .minor mishap on the plane where a latecoming lady decided to squeeze a huge bag into an already full overhead,i looked up momentarily to see what the #@$% she was up to,....just as Cheryl's didlodged metal walking cane came hurtling down,taking out my spectacle lens and chipping it in the process.

Fortunately the chipped lens landed in Cheryl's hand somehow and we managed to relocate it back in the frame.Apart from that it was a great flight on Qatar air,lasting just 15 hours.

On arrival we caught a taxi (400tl) which went pretty smoothly till the outskirts of the city, where the driver stopped suddenly with a flat, smack in the middle of the freeway.Tried to assist him with the tyre change but he had totally inadequate tools.

So he flagged down another passing taxi and after a bit of negotiation we landed up paying taxi 1 250tl and taxi 2 the balance of 150tl and off we went in taxi no.2a

No problem, and we arrived at our hotel,safe and sound, at around 2:30.

A great little place just 200m from the bosphoros at the amazing price of just R750/night b&b.

Had an awesome meal last night,just off the main drag, at a cost of R150.

Oh the exchange rate here is almost exactly R1=1tl so even Cheryl can work this one out (i think?)

No Cheryls been great,.....tried her knee out for the 1st time yesterday,and today she was almost back to her old "superfit" self.

 

BACK TO TURKEY

soon gonna be back in these wonderful, warm, azure waters 💧
 

THREE LONG %$#@ING YEARS AND WE'RE FINALLY TRAVELLING AGAIN

 Testing on my new SAMSUNG

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