So I made it through my first daiye in this NEW COUNTRY. Victoria: you’ve been to England before so your current trip does’t count for your country total. Remember I was in London with you in 2004 (Jebus, 10 years this month. Where does the time go?)
Anyway, each time one visits a new country there’s this getting-to-know-you period where the traveller has to adjust to the new environment. And Istanbul has been pretty easy. It’s not Tunisia (what the hell is a “louage”?) and it’s definitely not Australia (congealed soya sauce on toast? Barf).
The main thing I’ve noticed here has been the smoking. It’s banned in bars but no one cares. And yesterday I watched a movie and they had a ten minute smoke break at the one hour mark. They didn’t even wait for Matthew McConaughey to finish his sentence – and it was an important one.
Otherwise, everything is pretty normal for a Mediterranean country. I see some people begging in the streets and one of the locals informed me that there is a lot of Syrian refugees here. I rarely get to see world events up close – it’s kind of sobering.
The plan for Day 3 is to go see the giant cistern from From Russia with Love. I’m curious to find out if the Russians were stupid enough to build their embassy right on top of it. I’m at the pub right now writing this post and there are lots of cats around.
The DJ is blasting Shaggy. Time to head home.
Die Hard Three 
yeah, yeah, yeah … No new country for me … But I saw the queen!
For me, the takeaway from this post is: “The DJ is blasting Shaggy. Time to head home.”
Blasting his music loudly. After posting it I realized the ambiguity. I won’t make the same mistake again.
They implemented no smoking in public places and bars back in 2008. One of my favourite moments was a guy in an internet cafe smoking under a no-smoking sign.
They smoke everywhere!