Tue, 29 Apr 2003

author Liz	location Cricklewood, London, England
posted 21:00 BST 29/05/03	section Europe2002/Asia/Turkey ( all photos )

Last Day in Turkey ( 6 photos )
Tuesday was our last day in Turkey. We got up early and skipped the hotel breakfast (just in case that was the cause of the food poisoning), and we headed up to the Grand Bazaar because there were a few last things we wanted to get. After more bargaining, we bought the following: a Turkish fridge magnet, two Turkish tea sets, complete with apple tea, Turkish delight, and an evil eye. This is a blue glass 'eye' which the Turkish believe will ward off evil if you hang one or more up near you. I am a bit sceptical of this, as our first Bus Number 5 had three or four evil eyes attached to its interior, but they didn't seem to help much. Nonetheless, we now have our evil eye inside the van, warding any evil away (we hope!).
We had a while before we had to get to the airport, so we went and sat outside one of the tea houses and enjoyed a last Turkish tea and coffee. It was wonderful to sit and relax in the sun and chat about our adventures in Turkey.
Back at the hotel, we grabbed our bags, met one of the guys from our bus in the foyer, and then the three of us caught a taxi to the airport. We even managed not to get ripped off like we did on our first day in Turkey when we got a taxi from the airport to our hotel.
We checked in (after the security staff scrutinised us and our luggage), and then went through to departures, wandered around duty free, had some food with the last of our Turkish lira, and then finally boarded our plane.
The flight back was good, and before we knew it, we were back in cloudy old England, safe and sound!

So that was our trip to Turkey. Both Tim and I had such a great time, and we saw so many wonderful and beautiful sites. One of the most exciting experiences was trying to communicate with the Turks who often only knew a few words of English. We will never forget Anzac Day when we were in Gallipoli, and we are so glad that we went to support the diggers.
Turkey was nothing like I thought it would be, and now I know a lot more about it, I can't wait to get back there again sometime in the future.

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