Turkey Update

It's Friday today

And our holiday is in full swing

As a dyed in the wool shopaholic

I quickly located the main shopping street 

And zoned in on the New Balance trainer shop 

Where I promptly bought a pair of navy and pink ones

It was hard to know what size to buy

As my feet have swollen in the heat 

But I think I bought the right size

Anyway

I'm happy with my purchase 

And that my friends 

Is about all that my budget will stretch to

I need to keep my budget for essentials like food and water

Today we got up early 

Had breakfast on the terrace

And my Mother and sister and I decided to take the ferry to Princes Island 

To hit the beach for some sun

As today was promised to be a scorcher 

The ferry trip was about an hour long

However the minute my Mum felt the roll of the boat in the water

She decided against going

So she headed back to the hotel 

My sister and I had a lovely boat ride

We sat on the side

With our legs dangling above the water 

And drank freshly squeezed orange juice

We arrived on the island at about 11am

Where we quickly located the nearest beach 

Two sun loungers 

And an umbrella 

I parked myself there with my book and my drink of lemonade

Happy as a pig in.....

My sister went in swimming 

I just paddled as I feel the cold too much in water 

It was a lovely day 

And as it started to get really crowded and hot

We decided to head back 

We arrived back at our port at about 4pm

And started making our way back to the hotel

We were walking up one of the many hills

When a man walked by with a shoe shine kit

As he passed me 

One if his brushes fell out and on to the ground 

I did what anyone would have done

And picked it up

As the man didn't seem to notice it had fallen 

I called his attention

He turned around 

And when he saw I had the brush

He put his hand to his heart and bowed in gratitude

Then he shook mine and my sisters hand

And asked is where we were from

We told him

Then he wanted to know if we were lost

We said we weren't

That we were heading back to our hotel

It was at this point that we looked at each other

And started to feel a little uneasy

He persisted asking us 

And then looked at my sisters trainers mans said he would clean them 

He told us to follow him

And he walked on ahead of us 

We followed but crossed the road when we could 

Again he followed us 

And would not listen when we refused his offers 

We practically had to shout at him to get him to listen

Eventually we got away from him

And thinking about it

He probably dropped the brush on purpose 

In order to engage us

But it's just that they can be so persistent 

That it's really uncomfortable

There is an awful lot of poverty here

And I gues people do what they have to do to make a buck

I suppose they think that because we are tourists 

That we have a lot of money to spare 

And maybe some people do

But I sure don't 

The poverty is very much in your face here 

Walking around the city last night

There were whole families who had set up camp at the side of the street

I mean little children and babies

It's really heart breaking 

My mother was especially upset by this

And was giving the families money

But then it's hard to know if that is the right thing to do

And then there is the question if these people are exploiting their children to pull on our heart strings 

It seems to be a city divided in to the very rich

And the very poor 

Everywhere you turn 

There are people trying to sell you anything from bottles of water to packets of tissues

I guess they have to make money some how 

In other news 

I am managing my meds a lot better

And taking my methadone during the day 

And tablets at night

That seems to be working 

So we'll go with that

Just heading out for dinner now 

Happy Friday to you all

And see you on the next post....