Said goodbye to one of our tour buddies at the airport this morning and left Instanbul . We are off to Warsaw and she was off home to Seattle. We flew Turkish Airlines – nice flight, good crew and best economy class food we have ever had and with a good wine selection. Had fun at the airport checking in as our e-ticket was not recognised by the airline. After 15 minutes it was resolved and when we asked if we should take it up with our travel agent they said no – it was a problem with their system. We were not worried as we had already travelled from Singapore with Turkish Airlines on the same e-ticket. Perhaps we had contributed so much to the economy, and we did think we were doing this sometimes with the amount of tipping that went on, they did not want to see us leave.

Immigration took a while at Warsaw but the pickup driver waited for us unlike the one in Istanbul who gave up and left. Albeit the one in Istanbul did leave messages for us at the information counter and we did get in touch to reorganise.

We did not do much today except our visit to the Warsaw central train station to reserve seats on our trains to and from Krakow later in the month. Once we sorted out where to go we had a 1 hour wait in the queue followed by a minor confrontation with a (little old lady) queue jumper. She won over the ticketing agent by brow beating him - we think. We were redirected back to first spot in the queue for next vacant position and were sorted out in 5 minutes.

During our afternoon walk we have started to question our anglo saxon heritage. We were stopped 3 times and asked something in Polish (directions from a Polish tourist perhaps). We are going to learn how to say – yes, get the tram and keep going for about 2 km. Having said this the people are just lovely especially the girls in short short shorts and high heels (hmmm - wonder who thinks this!)

As not much happened we thought we would list some details of our Turkey trip that we had overlooked. Firstly, WE WILL BE BACK. We just loved it.

Did you know that Turkey shares borders with 8 other countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq and Syria), shares a coastline on 4 seas (Mediterranean, Aegean, Black Sea and Sea of Marmara) and spans 2 continents separated by the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus? This, its history and friendly people make it a great place to visit.

One of the most unusual things we saw was a Los Angeles Hells Angel (wearing his colours) with us in the hotel lift in Kusadasi. His shopping included some new shotguns still in their packaging.

Our experience with Turkish food was mixed. On the whole it was a most enjoyable experience but, as with anywhere, there was the occasional meal that was forgettable. Highlights were: Ayram (yoghurt drink), yoghurt in general, cheeses, kebabs (kebabs, kebabs ...), dried apricots and dates, nuts, lots of eggplant, stuffed peppers and eggplant, baclava, turkish delight, shephards salad, good local wines and beers; lovely ice cream, pide, fresh fruit and vegetables and more

Regrets: did not taste Raki, aphrodisiac mushrooms or smoke a Hookah. There is still next time.

Unlike members of his harem, Bruce did not have to deal with the overly friendly men in the Bazaars. Other than the hard selling in the bazaars the people were very friendly and helpful.

PS: pictures included here are of every day life of some of the people of Turkey.