Another day in Istanbul, another attempted blog post on the iPod. Will I have the patience?
Today was another day of walking, ferries, tall places, and good food. We took the ferries around after a lot of confusion thanks to the horrible guidebook that I got at Waterstones. Really, it has led me astray now twice and once very badly: the kind of error that might result in me coming home in a body bag. Yoko's Japanese guidebook which I was initially apprehensive about has turned out to be quite good. Has led us to a couple of good restaurants and shops, although, always the empiricist, I wonder how they have made their choices.
Today, we went back to the spice market and the girls discovered that if they just pointed at any sort of candy they wanted and looked longingly at the clerk, they could get a sample of it. Magic really. They kept getting things and then holding them up proudly to show me. I have luckily avoided the Turkish Delight for the most part aside from getting some samples myself, despite being much older and less cute than my daughters.
My goal on this trip was to do better than the trip to Spain last year in terms of my eating (to eat much less) and attitude (to be less pissy) and have been quite successful in terms of my eating (I've eaten less) and marginally successful in terms of my attitude (I've still been pissy), but I was also quite sick in Spain so I suppose it's a wash really.
I was more happy than I should have been with getting a Starbucks filter coffee today, but I was very happy. It was great. Like meeting an old friend by chance in a foreign land. I had two: one in the early afternoon and one after dinner. Is this the new McDonalds? Have I become that guy?
The great thing I discovered on this trip is the simple, but effective mulberry. Have you ever eaten mulberries? They're absolutely fabulous. Barely sweet. Just perfect.
Well. On to the next one. Taxi comes in 11 hours.