Constantinople

I have mixed feelings about being in Turkey - I love the history and the age of the place and the mosques and monuments are phenomenal. This city was once called New Rome before Constantine came alone ...it was the centre of the Western World - almost the Western world.

Actually only 3 percent of Turkey is in Europe and the rest of the country is in Asia or as the Turks prefer _ Anatolia. Istanbul is a huge city and he one of the most unfathomable I have been in. When I arrived I saw the hundreds of homes with swimming pools - I thought I was flying over California - there is a rich elite here and yet like most 3rd world countries the animals wander hungry in the street.

It is a stark difference to Nepal where everybody seems poor - almost. Not to be judgemental as the Turks seem, for the most part to be nice and friendly and open. The younger people anyway. I find the older men difficult to relate to. They talk at me and not to me - usually trying to sell me something and speaking to me in a polite but patronising way. One shopkeeper told me he had everything I wanted...haha - I could have given him the finger as we say but he wouldnt have got it.

There are lots of Muslim women in headscarves but looking fashionable and engaged in the modern world. I find it very difficult to accept the full black garb with a slit for the eyes - yashmak - I saw one family with the woman in full blackness and her husband and son dressed in modern western wear - it was very odd and displaced...I just don't get it...

Some of the Muslim traditions are wonderful and have a purity to them - the lack of idolatory in the Mosques is interesting - simplicity reigns supreme and there is a positive quality there that I understand.

What I like about Turkey is the seperation of church and state as we say in the west. Politics is seperate from religeon and in a country that is 95 percent Suni and 5 percent Shiite. The food is pretty good except for the ice cream.

I haven't tried the ice cream but two Brits I met on a tour said it is terrible stuff and has the texture of chewing gum and bears little resemblance to ice cream as we know it.

Went to Princes Islands today - well one of them - it was like a Greek Island full of tourists and cafes and nice but in no way special for me. It was my second trip on the Bospherous and the novelty has worn off...too spoilt with my own view of mountains and ocean in the Big C.

Interestingly though as the Bospherous leads to the Black Sea there is a lot of traffic but the ships have to wait their turn as the sea is getting narrower and there is now control of shipping lanes. No one pays to go through this sea that seperates the two parts of Turkey and war ships are not allowed to pass.

The other thing I like about Turkey is the fact that they are taking in the refugees from Syria..good baclava too!