Istanbul, Turkey

Saturday 28th May:

This was our first foray into a country that you wouldn’t consider third world but is also nowhere near as advanced as other nearby European countries. With the way the world currently is, although we had already booked the trip months ago in the weeks leading up to it we had been a little nervous about going.

A lot of this could be attributed to our checks of the Australian Government’s Smart Traveller website, where the advice for Turkey provided a lot of doom and gloom. Strangely enough though, other people we know who had recently travelled said they loved it. Pairing this with the UK Government’s more positive travel advice, we decided that we would be undeterred.

Having departed Heathrow on a late Friday night flight, we didn't touch down in Istanbul until after 4am Saturday. We jumped into a taxi, with a driver who wasn't overly convincing that he knew where he was going, and sped off towards the city. A Turkish blanket adorned the back seat and seatbelt clackers were seemingly absent.

The road network leading from the airport into Istanbul was an odd maze. From a well maintained multi-lane motor way, more and more construction fences and concrete barriers gradually appeared. Despite all these obstacles, the road was very poorly lit – how the driver had any idea where he was going was commendable. Bizarrely speed humps were also a feature, and when slowing down for one said speed hump a dog came out of the darkness, barking viscously and chasing the car. Straight away we were worried that there were going to be vicious stray dogs all over the city.

The drive from the airport to the hotel should have taken at most half an hour. By the end of it, we’d been in the taxi for over an hour and driven past the Blue Mosque (officially known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque) three times. The driver had spent so much time driving around lost that it was already dawn, and busloads of worshippers were arriving at the Mosque.

As we later realised, the driver managed to get so close to the hotel that he was literally one street away from it, but decided that he didn’t know where we were and so instead we drove around for an extra half an hour, with intervals of him stopping for extended periods of time to consult the map on his phone. Eventually we got to our quirky little hotel and hit the hay.

Upon awaking again, it was around 12:30pm and we decided to head out to the Grand Bazaar. The number of stray cats and dogs wandering around was quite staggering. There are estimated to be up to 150,000 stray dogs within Istanbul. Apparently these ownerless animals are icons of Istanbul and locals have fought Government plans to rid the city of them. And yet nearly all the dogs we saw appeared sad, neglected, and broken. Very few of them seemed to move, they seemed exhausted and spent most of their time just lying around sleeping. The cats on the other hand were more groomed looking. Coming from a culture where having pets is so commonplace, the sight of these animals was truly disheartening.

Out the hotel door and at the first set of lights, a man dropped a brush in front of us so we picked it up and gave it back to him. In our fatigued state, we completely forgot that we’d been told this was a scam. Once you’ve given the brush back, they try and force you into paying them to polish your shoes. Once he started up a conversation with us while pulling his belongings out of the bucket and flipping it over to sit down, we knew what was going on and so made an escape.

The Grand Bazaar is a huge covered market, one of the oldest in the world, with a labyrinth of passageways leading through around 4,000 individual stores. Admittedly, many of the stores sell the same things – there are countless vendors selling leather goods, fake designer handbags, mosaic glass lights, and Turkish sweets. It would have to be impossible not to get lost in here. See something you like and want to have a think about it and come back later? Good luck finding your way back. After we’d picked ourselves up a little Turkish lamp we found a door out (not the same way we came in), and headed back towards the hotel.

Later in the afternoon we headed down to Sultanahmet Square, an historic square with manicured lawns and a large fountain, framed on one side by the Blue Mosque and on the other by the Hagia Sophia. We went across to the Blue Mosque, known by this name due to the extensive blue tiles lining the walls of the interior, where entry is free and women are provided with head covers to abide by the Islamic dress code.

Afterwards, we strolled across to the other side of the square to the Hagia Sophia. Once a church, later a mosque, and now a museum, the Hagia Sophia was a more disappointing experience than the Blue Mosque. Not only did we have to line up and then hand over money for a ticket, once we were inside we found that there was a significant amount of scaffolding and hoarding, meaning that much of the sight was obscured.

Later on we strolled down to the waterfront area near the Bosphorus strait. Istanbul is very unique in that it spans two separate continents, Europe and Asia, and the Bosphorus is the divide between the two. Countless fishermen stood on the bridges with their lines in the water below.

On Sunday we rose early, booked for a day trip to the Gallipoli peninsula. Gallipoli and Istanbul are not exactly close by, depending on traffic it can take anywhere between 4-5 hours.

Being at the site of the World War I battlefields was quite a strange experience emotionally – we weren’t quite sure how to feel. The lives lost here are obviously a great tragedy, and yet the battlefields of Gallipoli are now a serene site, immaculately maintained and with stunning scenery.

Our guide was very knowledgeable, providing background information and context whilst still providing an unbiased tour.

We visited the Lone Pine Australian Memorial and Chunuk Bair New Zealand Memorial, ANZAC Cove, Brighton Beach, Beach Cemetery, Ari Burnu Cemetery, Johnston's Jolly (where we saw original Allied and Turkish trenches and tunnels), 57th Regiment Turkish Memorial and The Nek.

The long drive back to Istanbul took even longer with heavy weekend traffic and to add to the time, we had to take two rest stops at service stations. Here in Turkey it would seem that despite the extreme risk of danger, lighting up and smoking at the service station is acceptable. Safety first. Miraculously, the bus and its smoking driver didn’t ignite and we eventually made it back to the hotel around midnight.

The next morning, we went for a Turkish bath. Having seen the brochures and learning that they are an ancient Turkish custom, we thought “why not?” We were caught off guard here because what actually happened was definitely not in the photos in the brochure. We were a little surprised…

Highlights:

- Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) at night
- Hagia Sophia at night
- Lost taxi driver cruising around with us in circles
- Grand Bazaar
- Stray cats and dogs everywhere
- Sultanahmet Square
- Went inside the Blue Mosque
- Went inside the Hagia Sophia
- Strolled across the Europe-Asia divide
- Tour of Gallipoli battlefields
- Turkish baths

Week 60 in London

Week 60: 23 – 29 May 2016

It was the week that Chelsea Flower Show took over the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea (not actually a medical facility). Tuesday and Wednesday are days reserved exclusively for members of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), and our tickets being for Tuesday meant that we were in amongst the keenest fans and were also lucky enough to see everything at its freshest.

Highlights of this year’s show included exhibits to celebrate the 90^th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II and the amazing crimson ocean of almost 300,000 crocheted poppies. Stretching from the showground right up to the hospital building, the display was put together by Australian designer Phillip Johnson and inspired by Melbourne’s 2015 Anzac Day display in Federation Square.

The show gardens were displayed a variety of styles and designs, one of our favourites being the ‘Support, The Husqvarna Garden’ designed by Hong Kong born, English raised, Australian resident Charlie Albone and built by Bowral-based company Conway Landscaping.

Everyone has heard of sleep talking and sleep walking but this week Brendan had a strange bout of sleep laughter. Waking Roslyn with his slumbered giggling and when questioned what was so funny, he smiled widely and nestled in to sleep once more.

On Thursday while walking home Brendan passed Jamie Laing from Made in Chelsea, out for a jog along Chelsea Embankment, a fairly iconic strip alongside the River Thames. Meanwhile, Roslyn had a dinner at Hawker House, sitting near former English footballer and current sports broadcaster Gary Linekar.

Following on from work on Friday, we headed straight out to Heathrow for our 10:15pm flights to Turkey for a weekend getaway.

Highlights for the week:

- Chelsea Flower Show

- Brendan's sleep laughter

- Jamie Laing sighting

- Gary Linekar sighting

- Departed for Turkey

Week 59 in London

Week 59: 16 – 22 May 2016

A week out from Chelsea Flower Show and the pleasant weather continued. The city was coming alive with colour, with multiple celebrations and floral displays right across London in the lead up to Chelsea.

Kings Road, one of London’s best-known streets, runs through the heart of Chelsea and there were a number of green displays along the strip. The front façade of the swanky eatery, The Ivy Chelsea Garden, was transformed into a vertical bouquet of colour and was easily the most impressive, attracting plenty of people keen to take a snap.

On Tuesday Roslyn also had a garden themed event, the Hidden Garden Festival at Hampton Court. As a venue showcase, there was face painting and delicious food, the highlight being the Life’s a Beach dessert station, with everything edible including shortbread sand.

Unfortunately our recent streak of good weekend weather was broken on Saturday. Overcast and drizzly weather deterred us from spending too much time outside, so we instead went across to Southside Shopping Centre at Wandsworth for retail therapy.

As we already mentioned, Chelsea Flower Show was slated to take place next week. Having missed out last year, Brendan was determined that this year he would visit the world’s best known and most prestigious flower show. The only problem was that most of the tickets were sold out, and those that were available were insanely expensive. The other problem we faced was that the show ran from Tuesday to Saturday, but we were going to be in Turkey from Friday night onwards thereby limiting our options even further.

The efforts that Brendan went to in order to secure tickets were quite extreme and a little bit stalkery. In Facebook he went to the search bar and typed in the term “Chelsea Flower Show tickets”, and then trawled through the countless people (whom he did not know and had never met) who had posted about having spare tickets. One by one he messaged them throughout Saturday and Sunday, and oddly enough had a response from a man in a small town called Arlesey.

Unfortunately he had no contacts or plans to come into London. Desperate for the tickets and having not heard back from any of the other random people Brendan had messaged, we decided this was our best chance and so on Sunday boarded the train and headed an hour out of London to collect them.

We were definitely not in the city anymore. The small village station was completely unstaffed (it made us wonder whether it was worth actually buying tickets) and there was very little happening in the surrounding area. The tickets we purchased had apparently only become available because the man’s wife had just given birth to their babies (plural though not sure on quantity) eight weeks early. We now had our tickets, under the guise of Mrs Becky Allen, and so to kill some time strolled up to the pub nearby for a quick drink before the return train to London.

In all we spent less than an hour in the village, with no plans to ever return...

Highlights for the week:
- London coming alive in colour ahead of Chelsea Flower Show
- Roslyn’s event, Hidden Garden Festival at Hampton Court
- Shopping at Wandsworth
- Brendan’s desperate efforts to secure Chelsea Flower Show tickets
- Train ride out to “the sticks”, Arlesey

Week 58 in London

Week 58: 9 – 15 May 2016

The summer weather continued through the week, with London finally starting to green up. Vine covered brick buildings were blooming and elegant white stucco buildings were draped in Wisteria. All looking a little bit posh.

As we discovered a few days later, apparently at this time of year Wisteria hysteria takes over London (http://bit.ly/1U1sbKL).

Over the weekend just gone Australia had celebrated Mothers Day. Unfortunately our gifts didn’t make it back quite in time for Sunday, but did arrive early in the week – teabags in the shape of the Royal Family.

An envelope from Wimbeldon arrived, which we excitedly opened to reveal our tickets and seating position. Row ZC was a little disheartening, but at least we will be undercover from the weather and in centre court!

The weekend once again delivered excellent weather, and so we headed over to Putt in the Park at Battersea Park for Roslyn’s first ever experience with putt putt. Perhaps it was beginners luck or perhaps she is just a natural but nevertheless, seven holes in and on a u-shaped par 3 hole, Roslyn scored a hole in one.

After golf, we continued strolling through Battersea Park and onto Oxford Street to face the masses in Primarni (aka Primark).

Roslyn has developed a recent obsession with good, fresh Mexican food (not the supermarket boxed Old El Paso variety…) and so on Sunday we returned to Clapham Common once again, with tortilla crisps and a tub of guacamole for a picnic in the park.

We had a phone call from Brendan’s old school friend Gemma, who is now living in Dubai. Coincidentally enough, there was a Dubai Property Show being held over at Kensington Olympia at the same time. The conversation with Gemma left us curious to learn more, and so over to the show we went.

As we got there quite near closing time there didn’t seem to be a lot left to see. Artist’s impressions depicted luxurious living experiences, one borderline gaudy display was for the apartment development being marketed as 'space marvelled by Swarovski'. The unimaginatively named 'Sparkle Towers' are apparently a partnership between a Dubai property company and Austrian crystal company Swarovski, with the buildings to feature numerous crystal inspired adornments. The scale models of entire masterplanned communities were also certainly impressive, featuring detailed houses, apartments, golf courses and shopping centres.

Highlights for the week:
- Wisteria hysteria
- Mothers Day presents arrived back home
- Putt putt golf
- Wimbledon tickets arrived
- Strolled through Battersea Park
- Shopping down Oxford Street
- Picnic in Clapham Common
- Dubai Property Show

Week 57 in London

Week 57: 2 - 8 May 2016

Returning home from Malta on Tuesday, we were lucky enough to only have a short week.

Out from the office to post a letter, Brendan was wandering down busy Sloane Avenue in well-heeled Chelsea when he was approached by a friendly man letting him know that he could offer "sweet deals on sniff". Assuming this to be cocaine, which seemed a bit keen for only 4pm on a weekday, Brendan politely declined. A second attempt to lure in a customer was the promise of free samples...

With the weather now becoming warmer, we've been spending as much time as we can outdoors. This turf covered smart car was spotted near Battersea Park.

On Saturday we headed out to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Located only a few stops west of Clapham Junction, Kew has the feel of a charming leafy English village. The area near the station was flanked with market stalls and busy shops, while further down elegant homes were nestled into tree lined streets.

It seemed we weren't the only people who were keen to enjoy the warm, sunny weather. When we arrived, there were already hoards of people lined up waiting for tickets to get into the Kew Gardens. Amongst the 132 hectares (326 acres) of green open space, Kew is also home to historic buildings and iconic glasshouses.

First up we entered the Palm House, a humid and steamy glasshouse filled with tropical plantings from across the globe. After we'd wandered the floor level, we climbed the stairs to the gallery level where the temperature and humidity rose significantly.

Not wanting to be too hot and sweaty so early in the day, we made an exit and headed over towards the Magnolias, Azaleas and Rhododendrons.

There was a brief spray of rain as we went over the bridge at the Sackler Crossing, where we also saw a family of swans and their cygnets. The five minute sun shower soon cleared and we ascended the Treetop Walkway, soaring 18 metres above the ground. From up here we could see through the canopy of trees across the gardens.

After that we strolled on to the Japanese Gateway and Pagoda, before eventually heading home for the day.

The pleasant weather continued on Sunday, and so again we spent most of Sunday outdoors, heading up to Clapham Common for a bit of a picnic and to catch up on the blogs that had fallen so far behind.

Highlights for the week:
- Return from Malta
- 3 day working week
- Brendan blatantly offered drugs on the street
- Turf covered smart car
- Sunny weekend conditions
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
- Palm House glasshouse
- Treetop Walkway
- Picnic at Clapham Common

Malta

Saturday 30th April 2016:

Disassociated with the New Year and Easter, this weekend was the first bank holiday (long weekend/public holiday) of the year to be just for the hell of it. Our flights to Malta were out of Luton Airport, an airport that is literally still a work in progress. For us, Luton manages to hold the unimpressive title of being both the most inconvenient London airport to get to and also the most awful, just in general. Our flight departed at around 7:30pm Saturday, arriving in Malta just before midnight.

Stepping out of the terminal to our shuttle bus, Brendan was surprised by how developed Malta actually was. The small archipelago nation covers a total area of only 316 sq km and Brendan kind of expected more of a developing feel – to the standard of say, Luton airport. We jumped onto a shuttle bus, which our driver must have mistaken for a Formula 1 race car, and were whisked off towards our accommodation at the Golden Tulip Vivaldi Hotel, in the trendy Paceville district of St Julian’s.

After a few hours’ sleep, we awoke on Sunday morning and joined an open top bus tour. Although Malta is a relatively small island, it is still sufficiently large enough to require transportation, and there are both north and south routes offered. Malta does also have its own public transport bus system; however we were warned by reception staff the night before that it is not very reliable. The sales rep in the hotel, who was apparently already on liqueur coffee at around 10:30am, signed us up for both tours.

Roslyn was keen to see the Blue Grotto near Zurrieq, a group of sea caverns. When the weather permits, you can take a ride in a little boat through the caves. We’d been warned by both the reception staff the night before and the sales rep that conditions at the Grotto for our entire weekend were not good and that the boats were not running. Luckily for us, the sales rep called the boats office and confirmed that they were currently running. With that news, we were decided upon the south tour for today and being keen not to miss out due to inclement weather, wanted to get there as soon as possible.

The first part of the trip passes through Sliema, a town adjoining St Julian’s that is a major commercial and residential area. Like much of the touristy areas, Sliema hosts an interesting assortment of buildings fronting onto the waterfront ranging from completely dilapidated to old and functional, right through to new and ultra-modern.

Sat on the upper deck of the bus, we took in plenty of sun and enjoyed some stunning coastal panoramas. There was also a mix of the bizarre, the further out of the tourist centres into the countryside we went the more “developing” the scenery became. Although the bus stopped at a number of other points along the trip, the Blue Grotto was our one “must do” and so we didn’t get off anywhere else.

Once we reached the tourist hotspot, we were straight down the hill to the boat office. Despite having been at the front of the line, the combination of easy going but disorganised staff and tourists who were highly strung considering that they were on holiday, meant that entire boatloads of people pushed in front of us. After this happened 3 times, Roslyn managed to complain our way to the front of the next boat, meaning we had the best view.

The boat ride lasted just under half an hour, visiting the spectacular 30 metre high Blue Grotto as well as six other caves. The iridescent blue waters are a truly amazing sight, and the colours vary in each cave depending on the amount of light entering the cave and its reflection from the sea bed.

(Excuse the distorted bow of the boat in this next photo, we hit a wave midway through taking a panorama)



Afterwards, we went up the hill to get fresh seafood for lunch. Our pale British skin hadn't taken long to absorb the UV rays; after only a few hours in the sun, Roslyn was already looking quite burnt. While waiting for lunch, Brendan went off to buy Europe's most expensive sun care products, sun screen and after sun spray coming in at more than the money he had on him but the shopkeeper ended up combining them for €20.

We boarded the bus again as it meandered back towards St Julian's. After a swim in the pool back at the hotel, we strolled down to the Spinola Bay area for dinner. We settled for Cuba, a casual restaurant with a large terrace elevated above the bay, and enjoyed watching the waterfront transition from dusk through to night.

Across the bay, we watched tow trucks arrive to clean up several vehicles in a collision that appeared to have involved an Alfa Romeo crashing into a parked van, and the van having then been pushed backwards and up onto the car parked behind.

The next morning, we arose and made our way down to join the north tour. The start of the tour followed much the same path as the south tour the day before, then diverting after the capital city of Valletta. We passed through the town of Mosta which lies roughly at the geographical centre of Malta, and is home to an impressive domed church that can boast being Europe’s third largest unsupported church dome.

We got off the bus at the old capital of Mdina, a fine example of a walled city filled with historic limestone buildings. Mdina is strategically set elevated above the surrounding areas and from the wall edges, there are clear views across the surroundings.

Given Malta’s proximity to Italy, the food is quite similar. A Maltese specialty is rabbit, and although in our travels we normally have an adventurous palate, Brendan’s sentimentality meant he wouldn’t try it.

Following on from lunch we went for a wander around in the sunshine and grabbed a gelato. The weather took a fairly fast turn for the worst and as we were dressed for the summer, we headed back to the bus and took a seat inside. Within only a few minutes of the bus setting off, it was pouring with rain and all the people who’d been sitting upstairs started teeming into the enclosed lower section.

The drive back towards St Julian's went by some stunning coastal scenery. Back at the hotel we went for a dip in the pool and then wandered down to Hugo's Terrace, a swanky looking bar and restaurant. Positioned adjacent to the beach, we'd assumed that we'd be onto a winner with the Poseidon seafood platter, but sadly much of the flavour was masked by salt.

On Tuesday morning we spent our final few hours wandering around the local area, going for another feed at Cuba and dipping our feet into the water at the beach but it was definitely not warm enough to get in! We also tired (unsuccessfully) to find a cocktail made using prickly pear liqueur, and then it was time to head back to the airport.



Highlights:

- Second experience with Luton Airport
- Open top bus tour, north and south tours
- Plenty of warm sun
- Boat ride to the Blue Grotto
- Seafood lunch
- Europe’s most expensive sun care products
- Dinner at Spinola Bay
- Mosta Rotunda
- Old capital of Mdina
- First summer sunburn

Week 56 in London

Week 56: 25 April - 1 May 2016

This week we celebrated having lived in our Altenburg Gardens flat for one whole year!

The warmer weather and sunshine we spoke about last week had suddenly disappeared this week as it started snowing in the city multiple times! Definitely a change to last week and incredibly different to this time last year.

In the midst of all of this, on Thursday morning Roslyn was quite excited to tick off the last iconic London skyscraper from her list as she went up to the top of the Gherkin for a site visit. The Gherkin was one of her favourites from ground level, and it lived up to expectations at the top as well.

The end of the week was a great relief as we headed to Malta for a long weekend getaway for the first May Bank Holiday weekend.

Highlights for the week:

- 1 year in our flat

- Roslyn went to the top of the Gherkin

- Freezing weather, sleeting multiple days this week

- Malta

- Bank holiday weekend