Istanbul!

After a long flight we arrived in Istanbul... we were so tired we found our apartment thanks to a few locals and what they call Turkish hospitality... you don't have to look at a map very long here before someone intervenes and shows you the way... two kind guys actually called the guy we rented the apartment from and told him we arrived... we were so tired we decided it was nap time... and our host told us it was going to be hard for vegetarians in a city of meat... so we decided on pizza...

This friendly pooch wanted to help us... but out server told us he had already eaten twice... so no pizza for this little guy... I assumed when he said he had eaten twice that he was talking about pizza... he lived in a pizza parlour after all.

There is only one kind of Turkish beer... it's called Efes and I've tasted worse... also a rum and coke is 15 turkish lira here and a bottle of rum is 80 lira... Ashley has remained sober for the entire trip so far... I on the other hand... am still drinking Efes as I type this.

The next day our first stop was the Blue Mosque... known in Turkish as the Sultan Ahmet Camii.

One of the greatest things I have seen to date... the Catholics should have taken some notes... this beautiful building was clearly created out of love and devotion... no opulence here just craftsmanship with beautiful tiles reaching from floor to ceiling and a thick carpet underfoot... we stayed for a while to take it all in.

When you travel you over hear some funny things... but this one may have taken the cake... you can't enter a mosque with your knees or shoulders showing and you have to remove your shoes so they provide you with green or blue sheets to cover yourself... the russian guy above was wearing shorts... and he said to his girlfriend in a thick russian accent... "I feel like some kind of blue jedi."

B-rock is sleeping now so I'm going to take over from here...

We went to the Grand Bazar after the mosque and frankly, I was terrified that it was going to be an elbows up, mosh pit situation. But it was actually really calm and not that busy. 

You could get lost in it for hours but that would be a mammoth waste of time because every single stall falls into one of the following categories: jewellery, sweets, linen, porcelain, rugs, lighting or knock offs. I immediately discovered that Turkish Delight is not as disgusting and far more varied than I had thought.

I also learnt that Brock and I totally lack the ability to haggle, bargain or otherwise partake in the buying/selling exchange that most enjoy at the Grand Bazar. The entire time you are there, people are trying to sell you things and drag you into their booth. And we decided not to purchase anything from someone who wasn't trying to sell us something. But then once they listed their price, we happily offered up payment and found that out of pity or guilt, most vendors would just give us more change and tell us it was ok. Whatevs. I'm totally satisfied with my full priced trivets. Jokes on that guy, I would've paid several lira more for them. 

We are constantly mistaken for being American. Which is no big deal. But our favourite line from a vendor in the Grand Bazar was when he asked us if we were from China. To which Brock replied, 'no but all your stuff is.' 

Oh yeah. And there are protests going on. Have you guys heard anything about that?

I don't know about the kind of protests that you guys go to, but these ones have watermelon. And wherever there is watermelon, there is a good time. 

We are actually staying a short walk from Taksim Square where the protests are taking place. While we were nervous to arrive and see a mammoth crowd of protesters approaching us as we walked to our apartment, it really hasn't changed our trip at all.

Not to undermine what the protestors are fighting for or the horrorshow that was last weekend, but it truly has been relatively calm since we've arrived. We keep checking the news and have now figured out that things are either wildly different in Ankara or that news outlets are just re-running images from Friday and Saturday when the majority of the violence took place. 

I have yet to see a police officer that isn't directing traffic. The general mood has been closer to a big festival than angry mobs. There is chanting and marching daily with pot and pan banging at 9:30pm each night but we've found the crowds to be really peaceful and absolutely respectful.

We heard that last night the protests turned ugly again but still can't find reliable information online that is relevant to Istanbul and Wednesday evening. English speaking media seems to be lumping Ankara and Istanbul together and not getting dates right. 

We have seen a ton of leg and one pretty serious head injury that seems to be related to the events on Friday. From what we've seen online they seem to be from tear gas canisters and rubber bullets. It's really sad to see teenagers and dad's walking around with injuries from last week.

But... don't worry about us. I've had a few emails and texts of concern but we're more bothered by mosquitos which have bitten my eyelids and made me swollen and ugly.

Anarchy in a maxi skirt. Wish I realised it was see-through earlier....

Brock's awake now. We'll update more tonight. 

Tourist Central

Ashley on the water bus in Venice drinking a watermelon smoothie... being a tourist... in the background there are several Russian, Chinese, Japanese and American children wail crying...  only one local was riding this boat... he was the driver... no doubt dreaming about crashing into a wall and killing us all.

After we departed the tourist boat we stopped at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum... she was also a tourist with a fancy modern art collection... the house was beautiful... and so were the gardens... she had more money than the average tourist.

Every few minutes a water bus would go by rammed with tourists... floating down the smelly river.

Ashley in a tourist free zone... being a tourist.

Around every corner there is a beautiful church full of tourists.

The tourists above now have hepatitis c from walking in flooded San Marco Square... this is the same water in the dirty river which I later urinated in... bad tourist!

This is me trying to digest the bad tourist food I just ate... Ashley got food poisoning from this fine establishment... proving that Italy does have bad pizza exclusively for tourists.

Waiting in line for San Marco Basilica with the other tourists.

Tourist tower in San Marco Square.

At this point I wanted to kill a tourist so our lovely front desk man recommended a restaurant in the quiet jewish quarter... it was lovely to be the only tourists there.

These stands are every ten feet in Venice selling the same crap... I officially hate those masks... only tourists buy them.

We started drinking at a tourist pub... met two lovely Toronto ladies... we were clearly drawn to each other... and had a blast... we closed the bar and bought several bottles of wine and drank them on the edge of the river... that night I drank two bottles of wine... seven pints of beer... and some of that wine was shamelessly mixed with coke.

We didn't eat those hot dogs... that's what you call tourist food... just three bottles of your cheapest tourist wine please.

This was the last picture we took before the Polizia (Police) showed up... apparently four Canadian drunks can get a little loud after all those drinks... we saw a giant rat... I peed in the river... the little police man caught one of the girls peeing in the alley... we're charming tourists... nobody was charged... he even let us finish the wine... no doubt he's used to drunken tourists.

The next day we took a five hour train ride to Genova both of us with a cheap wine hangover... it's beautiful here... I'm glad to get away from the tourists and be sitting here in a deluxe hotel room looking out on a square full of palm trees... eating cheese and tomatoes that taste like heaven... and once again drinking a beer... hair of the dog/tourist.

Sitting in the tea room, eating wasabi peanuts, wearing sweat pants.

 Friends, we have been doing so much awesome stuff it's hard to fit it all onto the blog. And also annoying. My computer has been having mucho trouble connecting to wireless over here. Constant freezing. Constant internet crashing. As I type this, I am sitting in the luxurious tea room at the Sheraton Park Lane while, you guessed it, eating wasabi peanuts and wearing sweat pants in an attempt to get a decent internet signal. Don't worry mum, I threw a blazer over my tshirt so I still look like total class from the table up. 

Ok. So where did we leave off? Probably with me detailing one meal or another.

Which brings me our delightful time at Mildred's; a great veggie restaurant near soho. 

Fun fact, Brock and I were both here in 2008 (before we met) about a week apart.

Cute, non?

Brock had the ale pie and I had the burrito.  

Afterwards we stopped off at Hamley's which is still so much fun. I remember my mum taking my brother and I there and she explaining, probably to Justin, that it was the biggest toy store and had five whole floors of toys. 

And I totally thought she was doing that adult exaggeration thing to make it sound more appealing to me. Mum and Dad - I admit it; you've never lied to me.

Can you tell I miss Tonka?

Um... I really wanted every single Harry Potter replica wand. 

I just kept saying, "but 24 pounds really isn't that much."

and then hearing Brock tell me that replica or otherwise, wands don't do anything. 

Last night we were in Camden for a show at the Koko. Brock had told me before hand that it was like a nice version of the Opera House in Toronto. It was way nicer. And I actually used the bathroom at the Koko so that says a lot.

We were going to see Patrick Wolf. Rowdy Superstar opened for him and it was a riot. I don't know if that's a compliment or not.... RS was such a spectacle; I really enjoyed it.

Patrick Wolf on the other hand was unbelievable. I wasn't super familiar with his music before but having listened to some through Brock I wasn't expecting such an elegant performance. It was so amazing as he described meeting the love of his life at the same venue three years earlier. I know, I know. I'm a puss puss. Hush.

Oh yeah. Then I drank too much.

After the show I demanded that Brock take me to get noodles. Meaning some cheap nasty take out noodles that I could eat in an alley and feel quiet shame by myself. 

Instead, Brock takes me to a restaurant because he wants to get a beer. And instead of sitting across from me, he sits beside me on the back bench so the ENTIRE restaurant (which is tiny and full of sober people) is facing us. So much for quiet shame. Me and my 10 closest London friends got to watch me shovel noodles into my mouth with chop sticks.

The highlight was definitely being handed a menu and immediately handing it back and saying,

"I just want noodles. Vegetarian and lots of them."

This morning after sleeping off a slight hang over we headed to Harrods and I immediately hit the food hall. Both Brock and I were amazed and impressed with the customer service at Harrods. No one misses a beat in offering the Harrods card, assisting with directions and letting hobo's like myself try on many miu miu bags and chanel sunglasses with obviously no possibility of a purchase. Thanks guys! If I ever find thousands of dollars in the gutter I'll be sure to throw them your way.

And I tried a macaroon for the first time.

The verdict?

Yum.

Later on we headed to Portobello Road but we missed a lot of the market. We still really enjoyed the antique shops. I picked up a brass fox door knocker for our future home. 

Then, you know, we went to another pub. It was an obvious local with 2 hilarious older men talking dating with the bar maid who was younger than me. So entertaining. 

The pub also had these really need little rooms all around the bar with doorways shorter than 5ft and beautiful dark wood and sand blasted windows separating them. Very pretty.

I found one of these stacking dolls for Brock's nephew. I used to have one as a little girl. It's a pretty cool toy. I hope he likes it. I also picked up a cute little Harrods bib and a dress for Courtney's new little girl. I'm so excited to have a little girl in my life to buy cute stuff for! Sorry Bryson; stuff for little girls is just way cuter than stuff for little boys.

Sad Brock?

Oh no. Just tired from all the record shopping.

Don't worry. Beer and veggie burgers make him good as new.

I think that's it for now. I'm gonna jet off to the room to jump on the bed and watch more awesome British telly. No joke - I love British television. CBC, take note. This is how it's done.

Two more sleeps and I'm home. Miss me?

Sleeping in the Attic

Hi Friends.

Ok! We are in Poole. Or Poolie as B calls it. He's clever like that. 

We are staying at my Nan's (mum's mum) this week, sleeping in separate beds (a theme for this trip?) all the way up in the attic. And I must be honest; I was willing to sleep on separate floors as long as I still got 'my' room in the attic. 

Today was mega adventure day as we drove up to Bath to check out the hot springs the Romans left for us. We were trying to figure out what would be a good day trip and were initially going to see Stonehenge but after finding out that you can't touch the giant rocks even a little bit (does anyone else have the sneaking suspicion that you can probably knock them over but no one knows that because they haven't tried in ages? Just sayin' I'm really strong) we decided on Bath.

Oh. And may I just add that once again, England has revealed its love for me as we have been graced with only beautiful weather. Just like every other time I'm here. Based on my experiences, it only rains in Wales.

In another life (the one where I roll in money in my free time) I would go back and visit one of Bath's lush spas. They seem superb. But today, we settled for the school child visit. Quite literally. I was asked if I was leading a school group when I went in and it was my look of disgust that settled that question. Throughout the Roman Bath Museum we were dodging and avoiding the school groups but there were too many. All carrying clipboards they kept yelling at their teacher, 

"Is this going to be on the test?!" 

"Is this one of the answers over here?!" 

Please oh please, let me have one million children. 

The Roman Baths were a lot of fun. They gave us (free) audio guides. And it's important I mention they were free because normally I'm too cool for school (ok, poor) to shell out for that fancery. But they were actually really good. Enlightening and what not.

After the museum we found a pub quick fast where Brock proudly declared it his ninth of the trip. For some reason we missed going to even one yesterday but I'm sure he'll make up for it tomorrow and somehow find time to visit at least three.

Brock and I gave the British Veggie Burger another go and this time it was a success. And by success I mean, bits of chopped up veggies, held together by cheese and deep fried. Yes please. Who says being veggie has to be healthier anyways?

Oh yeah. I had nacho's to start. 

After a nice walk through the park we headed back home. And I'll add at this point that I am a superb driver who can easily and masterfully navigate the narrow and windy streets of Bath. So take that.