APRIL 17TH – APRIL 28TH
Get a cuppa... this is a long one :-)
The second half of April has been an exhausting, but very exciting time, with lots of adventures.
April 17th, maybe one of the best days of the year (because it is my birthday), was actually a relatively normal day. We were up in the morning for a normal work day. There was a phone call home to my mum and dad which was great, and I got to open a couple of small presents. Em and I have decided for our birthdays this year we get an experience, mine is the Eagles concert in Galway at the end of June which is very exciting. After the phone call, we were off to work for a slightly shortened but still very busy day. Late that afternoon I picked up Em, and we came home to get our bags as we were flying to London that night. After we made it to the bus stop, our friend Dirk was driving past, and gave us a lift to the airport which was unexpected but very kind. Birthday dinner was an airport meal, then we caught the flight to London, landing at around 10pm. From the airport we caught the train and tube to Nicola and Nialls flat where a much welcomed bed awaited us. It was a quiet birthday, but exciting as this was the start of our next adventure.
LONDON
On Saturday the 18th, after a nice breakfast with Nic we were on the tube to see Pramila, my cousin who lives East London. After being shown around her house, she took us further East to a part of London which is one of the most ethnically diverse communities in the world. There we went to some fantastic markets where there were enormous butchers, fruit and veg, and lots of other food. We wished we could do our grocery shopping there. Not sure about buying the meat there though – we saw big crates of chicken to be sold.. un-refridgerated in the market air!
Then we went for Chai wallah, which is Indian tea and snacks. It was fantastic! I had decided that I would call this my birthday meal, because it was too good for just any meal. After this we had a look at some more shops, well Pram and Em did, in Sari shops, Indian gold jewellers and a few other shops as well.
From there we went back to Pram's place, then we went to another Indian restaurant just near Whitechapel, which won the 'Best Indian Restaurant in London' in 2008. That is a huge acheivement given the size of the Indian community and the number of Indian restaurants – curry is the number one take-away / fast food choice for Londoners! It sure did not disappoint, with some amazing lamb chops and Tandoori chicken. This place is a must for anyone who comes, because these come a close second to the Lamb chops Dad makes at home.
After eating more than we needed to we went back to Pram's to pick up our bags, and to say our goodbyes. It was great to spend the day with her, and we loved going to this part of London, a part which I would imagine is not known as a tourist hot spot.
From there we caught the tube to Caf Bear's house. That evening we were all pretty tired, so we spent our time having a good catch up and watching 'youtube' clips which was quite entertaining.
On Sunday, the 19th we were greeted by a beautiful spring day. After a small sleep in and mucking around Caf's flat we headed into central London, and went for a walk along Southbank. It was nice to be in London with such warm weather (it was about 18°c) after the weather we had there over Christmas. There was some great buskers along the riverside. Em stopped by a silver mechanical man for a photo. There were also those silver people that are like statues, along with juggling performers and musicians.
That evening we went back to Caf's flat for a BBQ dinner; chicken kebabs and hamburgers. It was fantastic. We haven't had a BBQ for AGES.
On Monday, the 20th, it was a normal work day for everyone in London, so Em and I headed into town, left our bags at Caf's work, and went for a rather large walk. Our initial objective was to head to Covent gardens to get some tickets to a matinée musical that aftenoon. After we made a few stops for lunch, eating it at Trafalgar square, and a few other things, we discovered there are no matinée sessions on Mondays! Oh well, better luck next time. Our next job was to go and find camping stores. After about an hour we stumbled across a block of camping stores which was great. I bought some comfy sandals to take to Turkey, the same brand as Em's. After all of this we were both pretty exhausted, so we went and picked up our bags from Caf, said our goodbyes, and then caught the train out to Gatwick airport, and the bus to the Travelodge Hotel in readiness for an early morning flight on Tuesday.
When we checked in we looked out our window to see we were overlooking the runway. Some people might think this would be a dreary view, but we were both pretty excited about this and spent some time plane watching, with one plane landing / taking off every 2 or 3 minutes. Of course what made it better was the sound proofing that our room had. As there were no restaurants nearby we ate dinner at the hotel, then had a relatively early night.
On Tuesday the 21st of April we were up early, 3:50am, to catch the 4:30am bus to the airport for our 6:30am flight to Istanbul. Once we had checked in we went through to 'the other side' and found a place to have some breakfast. I ended up with a massive breakfast which was rather tough to finish. Em helped me out in the end.
Our flight was 3 ½ hours, with Easyjet, which was quite nice, with a reasonable amount of leg room. Em sat next to a friendly Turkish man, who ran a kebab shop near Gatwick airport. He was able to offer us some very good advice about sightseeing in Istanbul, bargaining technique, and ordering good food.
TURKEY
We had a good flight, with some nice views of Istanbul. It is a very dense city, and seems very patriotic, with lots of Turkish flags everywhere – on top of hills and buildings, and hanging out of windows. With over 15 million people in Istanbul alone it is the biggest city either of us had been to. After skipping the Visa queue at the airport (a bonus for NZ passport holders) we were greeted by a relatively nice Istanbul day – hazy but warm. I did have to spend a few minutes in customs though - for some reason, they seemed to think my passport was fake, so I had to do my signature for them, then they looked at my passport through a magnifying glass, and only after he spoke to his superiors was I allowed through. I am still not sure what the problem was but I made it through. At the airport we were picked up by a minibus. Here we were able to meet some of the people on our tour group which was great. We had about a 1 ½ hour journey to the hotel, however about 40 minutes into the journey we got a flat tyre. This added an entertainment factor to the journey as the jack was not working. The driver then proceeded to get large rocks and long pieces of wood set up (which he collected from the side of the motorway), and drove up onto this, to improvise for the jack. Thankfully we did not have to wait around to see how the tyre changing unfolded, as a replacement bus arrived to take us the remainder of our journey. We were extra happy to get on the bus as Em had noticed a van overtake a truck on the shoulder of the motorway where the bus was pulled over, and where we were all standing! During the remainder of of trip, we crossed the Bosphorus, the sea which divides Asia and Europe, and saw a large number of mosques. The traffic in Istanbul was chaotic, and people honk their horns a lot! When we finally arrived at our hotel, Otel Kaya, we checked in and got our room key, then realised we had left 3 of our jackets on the bus! We told the guy who was there to help with our transfer. He rang the bus company,who said they would leave them at a petrol station somewhere, and he 'might' be able to go and pick them up - this did not sound too promising.
We dumped our bags, then hit the pavements with three other people on our tour group; Felicity, Alice, and Lisa. We went and got some nice chicken kebabs which were made out of thin, soft, chewy lavash bread. When we were ordering the Turkish men could not understand what meat we wanted, step in Em, who proceeded to make animal noises. It was a hilarious, but very effective way of telling them we wanted chicken. After this we walked around looking at shops. We stumbled across a fantastic Turkish sweets shop and made a few small purchases there, then on our way back we went into an underground Bazaar, which was quite strange. It probably had more than 200 shops in it, all of which were mens suits shops, mens shoes shops, and kids clothing shops. No female stores at all. To add to it, there were all men working down there, and we only saw one Turkish lady there. It was cloudy with cigarette smoke, and altogether was almost unnerving. We left, without having bought a suit, shoes, or kids clothing. This finished our afternoon exploration and we headed back to our hotel.
After a nice relaxing hour we had welcoming drinks at the hotel bar, where we met the rest of our tour, and our tour guide Bulent (bool-yent). The group was mainly in their late twenties, and a great mix of people. Once we'd heard some information about the tour, most of us went across the street to a Turkish restaurant where we had a fantastic meal. We sat on a table with the 3 girls from town that afternoon, and Darren and Rachel, a Christchurch couple who had been living in Dublin since October last year. Anyway we proceeded to have 7 small dishes for our table with bread, which was fantastic, and filled the girls up. Darren and I also each had a lamb shish kebab, which had awesome flavour. By the end of this we were extremely full. We decided we would go down the road to a small bar we had seen in the afternoon and had a few beers. There we were given desserts by a friendly Turkish man sitting on the table next to us. Unfortunately smoking is allowed in restaurants and pubs in Turkey, and it seems almost everybody smokes. After this we all headed back to our hotel for a much needed sleep.
After a disturbed night's sleep (we were on the fifth floor, above the busy road) we woke to an overcast, windy Wednesday. I was woken at 5am by the prayers which are sung over load speakers from the mosques at 5 different times during the day. After getting ready we went down to breakfast, which consisted of a buffet of cheddar cheese, feta, olives, tomato, cucumber, yoghurt, bread, and (I assume for us Westerners), cereal. It was different, and not bad! After breakfast we boarded the bus, and went to the Blue Mosque. Firstly Bulent showed us around the surrounding area, which included the site of the Hippodrome, which was built by the Romans in about 200 AD. It was originally used for chariot racing and other public events, and the stadium surrounding the track held over 100,000 people. There are still many parts of the Hippodrome standing, like the obelisk in the middle, which was donated by the Egyptians (built in 1500BC and previously covered in gold!).
We were then shown around the Blue Mosque which was amazing. It is 550 years old, cementless, and decorated on the inside by more than 20,000 hand painted tiles – blue patterned, which give the Mosque its name. Some of the stonemasons who build the Taj Mahal worked on the Blue Mosque. Shoes were taken off before entering, and women covered their hair with scarves. Inside was breathtaking – 250 windows lit up the beautiful tiles and domes. It was quite busy in the mosque, and after about 20 minutes inside we headed to the domed building opposite the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia. This was initially built as a Christian church, it is more than 1500 years old, and was completed in just 7 years. The majority of the materials came from the Temple of Artemis, which is more than 9 hours drive away! It became a Muslim mosque after being a church, but is now a museum. From there we went to Topkapi Palace, the centre of the Ottoman Empire, of which Istanbul was the capital of (interestingly Istanbul was also the Capital city of Roman empire and the Latin empire). The gardens at the palace (and all around Istanbul) were overflowing with beautiful tulips in every colour – we learned that tulips originate from Turkey, not Holland! Unfortunately the weather become colder and it started to rain, so we spent the hour we had here trying to keep warm, looking at paintings and silk robes. There were numerous rooms of artifacts on display. One room contained the sword of the prophet David, and also the stick / staff that Moses used to part the Red Sea. We welcomed our return to the bus, and then back to our hotel.
After getting wrapped in more clothing we headed out again with Jen and Chris, an Australian couple from Newcastle, who were heading home following the Anzac tour after spending 4 months in Europe. Our first stop was a kebab shop for lunch, where we had another great shish kebab. After this we caught the train to the Grand Bazaar and Spice Markets and spent our afternoon there. I don't think any of us were prepared for what we came across. The Grand Bazaar is massive, more than 4000 shops in a higgledy-piggeldy indoor market, where you can buy pretty much anything really. We were lucky if we saw a quarter of the shops where you can buy gold, silks, pottery, food, kitchenware, camping equipment, clothing, and even mannequins! Em and I managed to find tarpaulins as well which was great so we bought a couple of those to keep us warm and dry at Anzac Cove. Unfortunately while we wandered around outdoors, it began to hammer down with rain, and we got rather wet. There were rivers of water running down the narrow streets. This pretty much signaled the end of our time at the Grand Bazaar and caught the train back to the hotel to dry out our clothes with the hair-dryer. That evening we went back to the restaurant from the night before, with Jen and Chris. The head waiter recognised us, and we were very well hosted. He ended up showing us pictures of his kids and family. Again we had a fantastic meal. After eating too much we went back to our hotel, had an apple tea with Jen and Chris, then went to bed.
Thursday the 23rd started early, 4:30am early! After an early buffet breakfast we checked out of our hotel at 5:30am for the drive from Istanbul East to Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula. We made a few short rest stops along the way, and arrived at Anzac Cove at about 2:30pm. We watched the move Gallipoli (starring Mel Gibson) on the way to Anzac Cove, and arrived just as the movie was finishing. Anzac Cove was very calm and quiet. There were people there setting up for the Anzac Day service, but not a lot else was happening there. The sea was very calm, there was not a lot of wind to speak of, it was quite eerie. It was a nice experience to visit Anzac cove when it was so quiet, to be able to take time to walk around the main part of the beach, and the beachside cemetery. It was extremely sad to read the gravestones, with most of the men younger than Em and I, and the rest of our tour group. After nearly an hour we caught the bus up to Lone Pine, the site of the Australian memorial. After looking around the memorial and graves, we moved onto the trenches that surrounded Lone Pine. From there we went further up the road to Chunuk Bair, where the New Zealand memorial is. Also at the top of Chunuk Bair is a statue of, the leader of the Turks during this battle - General Ataturk, who was later the first president of Turkey. Near his statue at Chunuk Bair was a pile of cannonballs, fired from British naval ships to the top of the hill. The distance of the firepower is amazing. After we had finished looking around Chunuk Bair we went to the Gallipoli museum, which contained artifacts that had been retrieved from the Gallipoli peninsula which included massive mortar shells, old boots (with foot bones in them), soldiers tools, and bullets that had collided in mid-air. This completed our look around the peninsula for the day. It was nice to go there without the huge crowds of people, and take time to look around the area. The whole peninsula has been turned into a reserve – the battlefields are one massive burial ground, where 86,692 (but possibly 200,000) Turks, 2,721 New Zealanders, 8,709 Australians, 21,255 British, 3,421 Indians, and 10,000 French soldiers were slain and buried - a total of over 130,000 wasted lives.
This eight month battle had no impact on the progress of World War One. There are around 37 beautifully laid out cemeteries, but those lying in unmarked graves far outnumber the headstones. It is very moving to walk on that earth.
Afterwards we had a 3 ½ hour bus trip to Edremit which is where our hotel was. We were all pretty tired and very happy when we finally made it. The drive was spectacular, and included going over a large mountain range, with the surrounding hills planted in grey-green olive trees as far as the eye could see. We arrived at about 6pm, and checked into the Adramis Thermal Hotel. After having a short break we explored the hotel, and dipped our toes into the two hot swimming pools. We didn't swim that night as dinner began, and it was a fantastic buffet meal. After dinner they had music, and a number of our tour group got onto the dance floor. There was a Turkish group there, with mums, teachers, and teenagers with disabilities. They were into the dancing, and taught a few of the basic Turkish dance steps. We made it to bed at about 11pm after a long day.
Friday the 24th was a planned rest day before our overnight stay at Anzac cove. After a small sleep in we went to breakfast to find the chef making omelets on a gas ring in the dining room, with your choice of fillings. The food was not disappointing at all. Afterwards Em and I decided to take a taxi into town, which was 1 Turkish Lira each (about 95cents NZ), for a 5km taxi trip. Once we got into town our first stop was a barbers shop, where I had a Turkish cut-throat shave. I had not had one before, and it was a fun experience. From here we just wandered around the shops for a couple of hours. It was nice to look around a less touristy town. I had a kebab which was great, then we went and got some ice cream. The first store we went to said an ice cream was 5 Lira (after choosing a tourist price) so we went 20m down the road and got them for 1 Lira each! The ice cream is quite sticky, almost a cross between gelato and ice cream, and very tasty. We wandered around a garden park, and headed back to the hotel where we spent a couple of hours in the hot pool. It was a beautifully sunny day, and it was nice to be swimming. At around 3:30pm we were served a late lunch / early dinner (another fabulous buffet), where we stuffed in as much as possible, because we were back on the bus at 5:30pm to go to Anzac Cove.
On the way we stopped at the supermarket to get a few snacks for the overnight sleep out. We arrived at Anzac Cove in darkness, just after 9pm. We went through security checks at the gate, then a group of about 10 of our tour found some space at the back on some seats. It was pretty packed, with the grass areas – coveted because you can lie down to sleep - being taken by about 3pm that afternoon! After we got organised at our seats Em and I went and visited Nicola, who was also there, on a separate tour. At around 11pm we went back to our seats, got our warm gear on and got into our sleeping bags. I was wearing thick woolen socks, shorts, a polyprop singlet, t-shirt, merino jersey, windfleece jacket, and a beanie. We had set up a tarpaulin as a wind break, but there was only a gentle breeze. During the night there was a program of entertainment, with something on about every hour. A number of documentaries were played on the big screens there about the Anzac campaign. One of the videos shown (at 2.30am) was of Jane (Raj's girlfriend), who was on an Anzac Day documentary a few years ago! There were also army bands playing wartime songs, and live interviews with various people as well. In between times, the crowd was very quiet – the mood was very sombre and respectful. The night remained clear and cool, with stars out in force, and then wind dropped right away. We were all so happy that the rain, which had been a real possibility the day before, did not eventuate. Em managed a small sleep, and I did not manage any. We were sitting in those small plastic seats you get in sports stadiums - you can imagine trying to sleep on one of those! Em and I were toasty warm overnight, unlike many others. This was probably because of our awesome sleeping bags. Bus loads of people continued arriving quietly through the night, until there were around 7,000 people present.
At about 4:30am, Anzac Day, the MC got on the microphone to wake everyone up and start to get things ready for the 5:30 dawn service start. After the VIPs arrived the service commenced. It was a very nice service. It was surreal - there was not a breath of wind, the sunrise formed a silhouette of the hills around us, and the sea was like a mirror. One of the nicest things for me in the service was a piece of music played by an army band as part of a symphony which will be performed in completion in 2015 (Centenary Anzac Day).The service finished at around 6:30am. After packing up we set off for the walk up the hill to Lone Pine. We arrived at just after 8am, so were able to sit back and enjoy the beautiful sunshine before the Australian memorial started at 10am. This was a nice service, and was more of a celebration of the serviceman rather than the solemn occasion that the dawn service was. The MC was very entertaining, chatting with the crowd prior to the service. He asked if there were any veterans in the crowd: when they waved out, they were given a standing ovation by the crowd, which was very moving. The Australian Service finished at about 11am, and we walked for another hour up to Chunuk Bair, where the New Zealand service started at 12:30pm. By this time it was rather hot, especially as we still had some of our warm gear on from our overnight stay at Anzac Cove. The New Zealand service was a solemn occasion. Judith Collins (NZ Minister of Veteran Affairs) gave a really nice reading, and Sir Anand Satyanand (NZ Governor General) made a really nice speech. At the conclusion of the service the mass exodus of people began. With over 200 bus loads of people to leave you can imagine the crowd. The is only one road, going in one direction, so the buses have to come up from the bottom of the hill. Thankfully we had a great bus driver and we were about the 10th bus load to be picked up. When we were driving down, we looked across the valley to see a line of buses probably more than 100 buses long (impressive, and a relief to already be on a bus!!) - at that point our group cheered for the driver's good effort in getting to the front of the queue. The bus trip back to the hotel flew by as we all slept. We arrived back at the hotel at around 5:30pm, unpacked our bags, got our sleeping bags out for airing, and did a small amount of washing. After this we managed to have a nice swim in the hot pool before dinner which was fantastic.
Dinner was again superb. After dinner the music started again and quite a few of our group got into it despite their tiredness. While dancing Em and another girl Felicity received beautiful necklaces from two Turkish ladies as mementos of Turkey. Em's was a beautiful teardrop amethyst on a silver chain. After about an hour of dancing, a belly dancer arrived, and danced for about 45 minutes. She was great. We were told by Bulent that she was once a famous belly dancer in Turkey. She got eveyone up dancing and we had a great evening. A few very funny things happened that night including a couple of Turkish ladies trying to get Alice, a girl on our tour, to marry their sons. It almost reminds me of Indian culture.
At about 11:30pm Em and I were exhausted and made it to a very much welcomed bed – it was good to sleep horizontal!
Our tour guide Bulent kindly let us have a small sleep in on Sunday morning, the 26th of April. We were up at about 8am. After some breakfast we went for our last swim at the hotel, before leaving at 10:30am. We went further South, through Bergama (Pergamon), and on towards Kusadasi – a beach resort town. At around lunchtime we stopped at the Pergamon Acropolis, the site of a Greek city from around 200BC. A large part of this city was pillaged by Marc Antony including an entire library of scrolls. There is a 'Pergamon' museum in Berlin which we will be looking forward to getting to during our travels later this year. Bulent said the museum took the pieces a long time ago for 'cleaning' – he thinks the pieces must be very dirty, as the museum has kept them such a long time!
After a lunch stop we continued our journey. We were driving through countryside which was where King Midas was from (everything he touched turned to gold). The surrounding hills are still heavily mined for gold, silver, and precious rocks such as amethyst, rubies, emerald, turquoise, lapis lazuli and coral. Our next stop was a jewellery manufacturer's, where they use the precious stones in the jewellry. Em bought a pair of amethyst earrings to match the necklace she was given the night before at the hotel. From here our journey continued further South, and we arrived at our hotel in Kusadasi at about 7pm. After checking in and a quick buffet dinner we were back out the door again to go for a Turkish bath. We had been told by a number of people that we could not go to Turkey and not have a Turkish bath. What it involved was going into a massive marble room with a tiled dome ceiling, which was hot like a sauna. We lay on a heated marble slab after rinsing yourself in water, so you started to sweat, a lot! After twenty minutes, the bath men come in, and you are scrubbed with an exfoliating loofah, and then you are washed and massaged with olive-oil soap suds. It was fun to do in a large group and the guys there were good fun, but it was not my thing. I do not really enjoy that sort of uncomfortable heat. Em did enjoy it though. By the time our group had finished and we got back to the hotel all squeaky clean, it was midnight, and time for bed.
Monday the 27th was our last proper day of the tour and it was a very busy one. We were up at 7:30am, and left the hotel at 9am. Our first stop was Ephesus, a Greek city founded in the 10th century B.C. It is currently under archaeological excavation and what we saw is only about 10-15% of the total city. What we saw was amazing, and massive. It really was like being in a movie set. There were flushing toilets, a massive multi-storey building which was the library, a brothel, and a huge hillside theatre which seats 25,000 people. Saint Paul lectured there, and it is still used for concerts - artists such as Eric Clapton and Pavarotti performed there. Ephesus was Bulent's favourite place and we could see why. He told us amazing stories and great facts about the city.
From Ephesus we went to a Turkish rug factory where we had a demonstration of rug making. It was eye-opening and gave us a new appreciation of Turkish handmade rugs. We were shown how silk is produced from the silk-worm cocoons. Young women sat in front of their looms with a pattern like a cross-stitch – one square equals one knot. One rug can take between 8 months and 3 years to make, depending on the materials and knots used. From there we were taken into another room and taught about what to look for in rugs, and then shown a huge number of rugs – they even demonstrated a 'flying carpet'. The Turkish sales people are great hosts and would bring drinks around like apple tea, juice, coke, wine, and beer. We were at the factory for nearly two hours. Em and I had a good look at a few rugs but we decided to buy one on our next visit to Turkey. A couple of people on our tour did buy rugs however.
From there we stopped in at a restaurant for some lunch (another delicious buffet), and then went to a leather factory. Again we were given drinks when we arrived, and then they gave us a fashion show. We movedinto the sales room, where a surprising number of people bought very nice leather coats.
Our next stop was the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. There is really only the site there now. The material used to build the temple were taken to Istanbul to construct the Hagia Sofia. Maybe one of the most interesting things here were the little souvenirs of Priapo, the God of Fertility. We included a picture for you.
The next stop was another factory. This time it was a Turkish ceramics factory – this was the area where the hand-painted tiles in the Blue Mosque were produced. It was the same story here - we were served drinks while a demonstration was given. This was very impressive, particularly the hand painting of the bowls. The clay in the area is high in quartz, and white-coloured, not the terracotta we are used to. Following the demo, we moved into the shop. Em and I decided that this is what we would purchase as our Turkey souvenir and found 2 colourful, large salad sized bowls which we both liked and bought those. The detail in the painting on the bowls is amazing.
Our day did not finish there. Our next stop was Selcuk, a traditional Turkish village, which is 5000 years old. This is no longer a town, but a tourist area with lots of shops, and cobbled streets. It is said to be the home town of the Virgin Mary, and the locals think she will return there one day. I was pretty much shopped out, but did go to a 'Genuine Fake' watch store and purchased an 'Adidas' watch for $10NZ. Em purchased three silk / cashmere pashminas which was good – nice and colourful.
Our day of touring, which was really just educational shopping, finished there thankfully – it was a packed itinerary. We arrived back at the hotel about 8pm. We had dinner when we got back, then went back to our room and had showers. Unfortunately we had to pack our bags, as the majority of us had an overnight bus ride back to Istanbul. After saying goodbyes to a number of our tour group, including our guide Bulent, our bus left at about 10pm.
It was a long bus journey, but both of us slept for large parts of the trip until about 6am.
We were dropped off at the airport at 7am, Tuesday the 28th, to finish our time in Turkey there. We were pretty exhausted from the past few days, and still had a long day of travel ahead. We were on the same flight as Felicity, one of the girls on our tour, so we mucked around playing cards for a couple of hours. Em and I felt like a hot drink at the airport, so Em went and got us a couple of hot chocolates – to her horror, she paid 20 Turkish Lira for them, which is nearly $20NZ!
We left Turkey at 1:30pm and had a four hour flight back to London. It went well, and the flight arrived on time. After saying goodbye to Felicity, who finished her journey in London, Em and I settled in to more time wasting at Gatwick airport. Because we had the luggage with us we couldn't be bothered going anywhere, so we sat and read, looked in shops, and went to an airport pub and had a couple of light snacks, until about 8pm when we could check in. Em saw an older man shoplift a book, but he noticed her looking, so he did a big circle and put it back on the shelf! Once we had checked in, we went through to the other side to have a look at more shops, have a light bite for dinner, and then get on our plane at nearly 10pm London time. We arrived back in Shannon airport at just after 11pm. By the time we waited for the bus and had our bus trip, it was midnight before we got home. It was a long day of travel but we were welcomed by a nice comfortable bed – much better for sleeping than bus and airport seats!
