My first impression of Istanbul wasn´t great, with several people trying to tell me the buses were not running or did not run to my hotel; trying to trick people into taking their friends taxi. It´s okay, I found the bus.
The next morning I headed out early and enthusiastic with a long list of things to see. Just outside the hostel someone dropped something in front of me, they didn´t hear me call so I ran to give it to them. They turned as I was just a metre away with a brief look of terror to see me running at them with something in my hand, but were quickly relieved and thankful for me returning their shoe-shining brush offering to clean my shoes. Of course they then wanted money for it and I gave them just a little bit. I was a few blocks away before I realised they dropped it on purpose - I thought it was a good trick.
I had a couple of brushes dropped in front of me everyday (even with my lovely clean shoes), which really sums up being a tourist in Istanbul. I found you literally could not stop to look at a map without a very friendly carpet salesman starting a conversation with you, or sit down for a kebap without being introduced to a carpet/jewellery salesman. It was annoying enough that I ended up wearing headphones (without music) to make it easier to ignore them.
Annoying touts aside, I had a great 4 days in Istanbul. The Mosques were amazing, I was interested to see there were still some Christian painting from when the Aga Sofia was built as a church. The palace was different to anything I had seen (less European) and it had a great collection of bejewelled cups, daggers, hats - everything covered in over the top jewels. As well as the staff of Moses, the sword of David and other dubious artifacts.
I befriended and Australian and a kiwi at the hostel and hunted out some good live music each night. Considering it was guess work the talent of the bands was amazing. We also found a cafe that had monopoly which was fun (in other words, I won). I spend a day with my London flatmate Ayten who had just moved back to Istanbul. I had all sorts of questions for her about Turkey plus she gave me a big walking tour, pointing out buildings and taking me through the bazaar (showing me where to buy the good Turkish delight!).
Another highlight was escaping the tourist area to go to a weekly market where shopkeepers were amused by my being there taking photos and kids in the street called out the few English words they knew. I also found an Internet cafe where they didn't speak English and served free apple tea.
The flight out was from an airport on the Asian side of Istanbul which was interesting only for giving me the novelty of being in 4 continents in one week (Asia, Europe, North America and South America).
I spent 3 nights in London which was nice and familiar, I even found my way back to old Griffiths Rd. I had organised to log in to Harris Black and do some work for them as well as some important errands like a haircut and immunisations.
So, after 2 solid days of work you can imagine I was ready for another holiday, starting with 4 days in New York. I loved walking through the different neighbourhoods. From Harlem it´s just ten blocks to the upper East side which is the complete opposite. There were uba-trendy streets around Soho and Hell´s Kitchen (my favourite was a restaurant with animatronic displays, a birds nest with 2 small surveillance cameras overlooked by a large camera, plus a leopard. Next door to the "Restaurant and Social Club for Explorers and Mad Scientists"). Chinatown, little Italy and the financial districts were all what you would hope for. Everything was so distinct.
There were the obvious sights along the way - Wall Street, Empire State, Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Central Park, and Brooklyn Bridge. Some of the buildings reminded me of ruins you see in Italy in Greece, particularly the NYC library and the federal reserve - I imagined that in however many hundred years New York will a historic city like Athens or Rome; I also imagined that in their day Rome or Athens would have felt a bit like New York does now.
By luck I was there for Halloween on a Friday night. I met a girl in Starbucks that day, who invited me to join her friends that night. We went to a street in Greenwich Village which was apparently 'Halloween central' - the costumes people wore were amazing: lots of superheros and politicians (and Joe the plumber), a postal worker, robots, a topless girl in body paint and the usual zombies and skeletons. They had picked a bar, a band and a retro dance club, passing by Times Square between venues. The group were all young professionals who gave a great impression of New Yorkers (I remembered I like Americans so long as they are inside America), they were so open that I felt I knew them all very well by the end of the night.
I also checked out some jazz music and had a look at the New York Marathon.
