Istanbul
I have decided to leave today, whatever. English Time has stuffed up my final pay - I had chosen to leave on the 15th to make it easy but they still stuffed up. With no real branch manager and a new head teacher who seems to be always away, sick or quite possible drunk, nobody who actually mattered in terms of getting things done knew until Saturday when Fatos asked me about activities for the next week. She put put in my hours but Taksim II (where our branch manager resides) didn't get around to sending them to head office until Tuesday morning - [insert sound of the gritting of teeth]. New plan : I have paid a month's rent, which was to be for September/October but I can take that back from Bas's money (the guy who is taking over my apartment while I am away) and get a friend to collect my money and pay the Sept/Oct rent for me if I am not back by then....So I am definetly going. I head down to Sirkeci, which has both the train station for my ticket to Ankara and Istanbul's photography soop quarter - to buy my new camera. The two shops that had quoted US$650 are both out of stock - &#$%^%$ - a lot of hunting but nothing under US$750 :-( then back to the original ones - in a kind of large 60s arcade style building and try upstairs and am in luck. The tax free option is even easier than I thought. Normaly it means you get your tax back at the border - but here its just under the table - no tax! Though no receipt.
So across the Galata bridge to Karakoy to hunt ofr new hiking shoes - the outdoor shop I hadn't liked before turns out to be friendly this time - good prices - but arghh nothing in my size :-( I try the place around the corner but they just don't feel right and they seem a hell of alot more...so I skip it for now - maybe they will be cheaper in Georgia....
Back to E.T. - money!!! :-) Run home - back - Bas arrives to move in - E.T. rings they want the broken MP3 player back that I had forgotten about - sprint there and back grab by things - teleferique down to Kabatas, tram to Karakoy, ferry across the Bosphorous to Haydarpasa, the grand old 19th century hub of the trains going east to Baghdad and Mecca, and just make the train.
So eastwards - . I grab dinner in the dining car, as we pass through the suburbs of Istanbul - glimpses of the sea of Marmara to the south. Back to my seat I chat to my neighbour an Istanbul based Laz from Gumushane - of to Eskisehir to bring back his parents for his wedding. He works in a call centre outsourced from Germany where he used to lived - and so he has a whole fake persona, called Marco, to make them think he is not a Turk in Istanbul!
