Right, I am not sure where to begin, as the trip began with 36 hours of flights and airports, which might not be the most interesting topics to report. However, Bree and I did manage to find ways to entertain ourselves, which resulted in us getting asked to leave a perfume shop at Sydney airport as well as being stared at by other airport-goers. Bree thought it would be a cool idea to make a video montage, so we deliberad and thought it would be a fun idea to make fun of some of the posters, which involved us going around the airport and taking pictures of ourselves immitating the poster. Unfortunately for us, the shopladies where not so impressed when we tried to copy a dance pose and were told.”no pilates in the shop”. However, there were plenty of other opportunities to take awesome pictures and videos. Some examples include Bree dancing with her donkey friend and me immitating a bird. Photos will be posted later, trust me, they are hillarious.
From Sydney to Dubai we got to go in one of the big jumbo jets, airbus380, and man they are super fancy. There are even stairs in the plane between the two levels, which I was a bit overexcited about according to Bree. The whole plane experience was all fun again at the start with the movies, food and other entertainment provisions; resulting in several other passengers thinking we were a fw immature teenagers. This flight was 14.5 hours long, but it actually was quite manageable. Unfortunately, I had a grumpy hairy looking man behind me complaining that his “legs were long enough already” when I put my seat back, so I had to sneak it down when he went to the loo (he was pretty scary looking ok). Even then it was a bit uncomfortable during the night, because when i moved to ajust my sleeping position he leaned forward and asked if I “could move my seat up”. No please or anything. I mean are you serious, it was the middle of the night on a 14 hour flight! and I can’t help it he had long legs and did not request an aisle seat. However, overall the flights and trip went very smoothly. We didn’t go off Dubai airport because we were getting quite tired by this time and just wanted some time to chill, rest and eat.
We arrived in Istanbul, Turkey, at 6.30 last night, which was half an hour delayed. We were well fatigued by this point and could pretty much only comprehend Disney movies on our last flight. Very tired we had to wait for ages for passport control and I am amazed I didn’t fall over as my fatigue was about a 9/10. We followed Simon’s instructions and took the bus to Taksim square, which was all a breeze. Things I noticed on this trip included the beautiful shapes of the mosques against the sunset very Turkish, nice. Also a lot of apartment buildings (I am not sure if this city knows the concept of housing as we know it) and a lot of traffic police (on every corner, with sirens on and chatting, very inefficient if you ask me).
Thankfully, Matt and Daniel (Simons flatmate) came to pick us up, which meant we made to safely to Simon’s without getting lost in the maze of streets. Simon’s flat is reasonably central (well for a city of this magnitude) and up 6 flights of stairs, which was definitely a good workout for the tighs. (also my pack is very comfy and can easily handle is sort of activity :)) This does mean the flat has a great view over the North side of the city and part of the Bosphorus bridge. It was very good to see Simon again and good to find out he has not changed and is just as adorable, awesome and loveable as always.
It was amazing to sleep on a flat surface again and despite being woken up at about 5 by the morning prayer managed to go back to sleep and have a nice sleep in till about 9 ish. Washing my hair was definitely the highlight of my morning, which was highly relaxed. The afternoon and evening were filled with exploring one of the main shopping areas, the “New Mosque” (where we sat in on a prayer sessions, which was quite nice), the Spice and Grand Bazaar, the Basilica Cistern and the Blue Mosque. I got a small obsession with the pretty lights at the Grand Bazaar, which I took lots of pictures of and was happy I have no space in my pack to take some home, because I would have wanted the whole shop. Overall, it was very enjoyable to be immersed the the high density of culture that is present here. It is great, I feel so relaxed, like I am finally on holiday! It was just such a nice day, not too hot or cold and everything has this very relaxed feel to it here. Also it is very beautiully located by the water, with the old buildings and nice cobbled streets. However, is is a very big city though, lots of traffic and other things happening, which does make things a bit overwhelming sometimes. Right I am tired and I Simon is coming home soon, but I will try to put up some pictures in the next few days.