Istanbul Turkey May 21, 2022

 Hello All. There have been no great events since my last update, (remember....what happens in Rome......) We have interviewed schools and now have one where Hussian can start grade one in September. It is an English school with two sessions of Turkish a week....just what we wanted.

I have some observations as to what tourists will see when they visit this country. First is that pedestrians must give way to cars, motorcycles, scooters, and anything else that is motorised. This applies even if there is a green walk signal. There appears to be no laws for motorcycles. There are thousands of them, and they run on roads, sidewalks and pedestrian crossings, everywhere. If one were to buy a car here, the signal lights and brakes would be unused...the horn would be worn out.

the city of Istanbul has an excellent bus and Metro train system and it runs on time. There is a bus service that covers the area beyond the rail system, but there is one major problem for tourists, and some locals not familiar with the routes. While there are Bus Stops every two blocks or so, not one stop has the number of the buses that stop there.

We now have continuous warm weather, into the mid twenties, and so far just one day of rain since I came here.

This afternoon, we will again go over to the park known as Miniaturk and spend some time there. It has miniature scale models of dozens of sights within Turkey.

This will probably be my last posting until after I return to Ottawa, which will happen a week from tomorrow. I actually go to Montreal on 29 of May, and to Ottawa by rail the next day, Take Care.

Istanbul Turkey Monday, May 9, 2022

 To continue from where I left off last week, we finally received a copy of the Police Report for my friend's stolen wallet. One week later, and after two visits she went to the police station with a lady friend of hers from Morocco. This lady speaks Turkish and Arabic. The ladies were treated with the greatest of respect, and had the report and translated it in no time. People at the station all of a sudden could speak English, Arabic and Turkish. The issue, believe it or not was the fact that all along, the police thought that my friend was from Syria, when in fact she was born and raised in Iraq. Two days later, the president here announced that Turkey would soon start to send a million Syrian refugees back to their home country.

Yesterday was a time for exploring, so we went by subway into the main part of this old city to the world famous Grand Bazaar. This is the largest covered market in the world, with over four thousand shops, and more than 66 streets. It covers over 330,500 square feet, and in addition to the shops, has banks,Post Office,Restaurants, police station, and its own Mosque. We walked and walked, but did not buy.  At no time did I see a price on anything. Thousands of handbags and such with world famous names, but probably all made in Asia. We were here briefly in January, and the only change is the fact that tourist season is in full swing here.

The weather is forecast to be  sunny and in the mid twenties until the weekend so we will pick a day and do a one day tour of Prince's Island. This is actually a group of ten small islands a little over an hour by boat from a dock here on what is known as the Golden Horn. The islands are in the Sea of Marmara. For about the equivalent of twenty five Canadian dollars per person, we get picked up here at my hotel, the round trip boat ride, tours on the larger islands and lunch. I will report on this adventure in my next update.

Istanbul May 2, 2022

 Today is the end of Ramadan for this year, so almost everything is closed. Tomorrow, everyone will be back to a normal routine. For the Muslim faithful, the last month required that they not eat, drink or smoke during the period from Sun up...about 05;30 to sun set now about 8;25 in the evening. Their days are spent in prayer and at their work sites. After dark, they have a large meal with family and friends, and attend band concerts, playgrounds  parades and even night markets which are open for this month only. Yesterday was set aside for shopping. The custom is to go out and buy yourself new clothes,for being good, and if you have family, new clothes for the kids also. We took the Istanbul Metro two stops to the Isfanbul Mall, which was a madhouse. Since Hussian's mother had already purchased her new outfits, it was a day of shopping for Hussian.

On the evening of April 29, (last Friday), we attended events at a nearby park with the night markets, bands and the whole nine yards. There were massive crowds. About ten thirty that evening, someone stole a wallet from my friend's purse. There were police everywhere, but these characters are very bold. We had about nine police officers asking questions and had a problem with that because not one of them could speak Arabic or English...just Turkish. My friend speaks English and Arabic. Two boys about 14 came by and offered to translate from Arabic to Turkish...this went on for an hour. The officers offered phones and any help but their phones would not work outside of Turkey.

The stolen items were a few Lira, but also a Canadian based bank debit card, Hussian's Turkish Residency card  and two store cards. Our first action was to call the bank and freeze the card from use. We had help from the Canadian Consulate office here, but had to wait for one hour on hold to speak to the bank people. We got the account frozen, and no charges had been yet made on the card. Last evening, we went to the local police station to get a Police Report but no one there could speak Arabic or English. Tonight, we will try again. This was the highlights of the trip so far....the type we do not need. I must say that everyone was doing what they could, and were most polite. Take Care