Istanbul – Additional
I keep thinking of things about Istanbul that I wanted to mention but didn’t remember them when writing the blog…
Firstly, there was the bongs…
Several cafes we passed, on the way up to the mosque, had massive bongs on the tables, and we saw several people using them in the restaurants on the bridge… all perfectly normal in Turkish society, it seems.
The other thing was the guns; quite often, we would see military personal standing guard at various places around the city, sporting Kalashnikovs, and the police, of course, all carried guns. The most amazing thing, though, was on our return to the ship on the second day; along the waterfront there are endless traders, trying to sell all sorts of stuff – mostly watches, but also expensive perfumes and mobile phones. Right on the entrance to the port, though, sat a guy trying to sell firearms – he had a rifle and a revolver clearly out on display – quite bizarre – imagine buying one of those and trying to take it on board ship… naaaah!
