ISANBUL to LONDON

Isanbul, Turkey to London, England
Day 99

Happy Birthday Susan!

Our last breakfast at the Apricot Hotel was YUMMY, again! We sat out on the terrace, just as Annie did, when she and Graeme were here and drank our freshly squeezed orange juice, ate our omelette, fetta cheese, fleshy green olives and french toast, fetta filled pastries and delights....

To the music of the harp. A group of ladies had gathered with one pulling out her musical instrument and started singing. It was beautiful. A lovely ending to a beautiful time we had in this parodoxical country.

Apricot had a libray where you can exchange books so I exchanged my 3rd Mauve Binchy book, The Quentins for a good action book and Greg got a Wilbur Smith. I'm also reading a book called The Island about a woman seaching for the history of her mother who lived on the Greek Island of Crete. And gulp, i also have a book on Gallipoli, which i'll send back home.

My pack is getting heavier....

And my book obsession is obvious.

But i tell you. Not having any english newspapers or tv is making me devour english books at the moment. And papers when i can get them! And um..yep, magazines as well. It helps wile away the hours travelling on buses. Greg can sleep but my neck just gets too stiff!

We had until 2.30pm until we were being picked up by the shuttle bus and ferried to the Airport so we decided to go back to the room and check out at the latest time...11.30 and use the rest of our card we bought to ring my dentist when we panicked about losing my tooth.

So I rang Mum. I hadn't heard from her since before she went to Rottnest and I was dying to hear how it went because Greg and I usually go to Rottnest with her each year for a few days in June.

I felt like crying when i heard her voice. I really wanted to ring her from Istanbul because this was a place i know she really loved and i could almost envision the pictures she'd formed in my mind before we'd even arrived here. Of the turkish ladies weaving at the looms, of the old ladies weaving on the balcony, of the rich colours of the tapestries and carpets, of the old grandeur of the hotel she stayed in when she was here, the Londra and of Peire Palais, where Mum's favourite author, Agatha Cristie stayed which was very near the Londra.

She told me where the Londra was. It was near the Topkapi Palace, which we'd been to and so knew exactly where it was situated. She said it was walking distance.

So after we talked a bit about the goings on in Perth and caught up on everything we hung up and Greg and I decided yes, we'd fill in the next 2 hours having a look at these old hotels.

Walk there???

We got to the Topkapi Palace and headed off to where we thought the hotels were...and got VERY lost trying to follow the directions Mum told us!!! (I know my sense of direction comes from Mum!! Elise and Sam, you'll both attest to this..!)

OK. Maybe the streets had changed. Greg had said it had changed A LOT in 20 years..and maybe that's what it was. Different to when Mum had been here. Later we did find out yes, it has changed, you can't really walk there from the Topkapi. We had to cross the Golden Horn and the bridge was very busy! (with cars!)

We caught a taxi knowing we didn't have much time. The first taxi driver said, 20 Lire...the second guy, who we went with, said 10 lire. Talk about a difference in price! He turned out to be really good too..telling us about the city as we went..pointing out the hold wall and the aqueduct etc so it was a well worth 10 lire.

And we did go to the Londra..and went inside..it's old Victorian and very beautiful. We were a bit sorry we didn't know about it sooner (we did know but i got mixed up thinking mum had stayed at the Apricot, where Annie had stayed..typical me, to get mixed up!) Greg said it was better at the Apricot tho because it was closer to all the sites and we'd have to keep catching a taxi in and out and over the Golden Horn bridge to Sultanahmet, which would be an extra 20 lire each time..and also, of course, the Apricot was beautiful, Mahmet there was just gorgeous and so helpful and the breakfasts were equisite. It aso felt we were with family because Annie and Graeme had a 'carpet history' with them!!!!

We also went over to the Piere Palais where Agatha Christie stayed (and the hotel that she mentioned in her book..or the hotel where she wrote the book, Orient Express..not sure which it was now!) It was under reconstruction so we couldn't go in..but we took photos of the pictures on the outside of the hotel...it overlooked the Aegean Sea..so it was a beautiful spot to be.

We then..of course, had to get back. And stupidly decided to walk!! WHY did we do that??? Knowing we had to catch a taxi there...well, because the guy on reception at the Londra said..yes, of course you can walk!

SO we did..and that was ok..except we got LOST again..and we had to get to the shuttle as we'd booked..and had to go...etcetc and trying to save money...we wanted to catch a 8 lire shuttle and not pay a 40 lire taxi fee.

So..in the end...we RAN to the shuttle. Now........if your'e fit..that's fine. And we are fit. Really fit in fact. BUT...when you have a stuffed foot...it's NOT fine. I remembered my orthopaedic surgeon saying...'you'll never be able to run again'....well...NOT SO! I RAN!!!! Cool hey.....

I put it down to GOOD shoes...(orthodics are great hey!?) and sheer determination that i actually walk FAST that 4 km..and RAN that last kilometre.

Felt quite proud of myself actually.

And we had 20 seconds to spare too...hahahahaha...

In hindside, we should have caught the taxi..cos, it took half an hour to get to the airport instead of half an hour cos we had to go and pick everyone else up that wanted to save a few lire as well!

Still, we got our exercise for the day!

Off to LONDON....

How exciting!