Snow

Much loved Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk has a book called 'Snow' so really I shouldn't have been surprised to see Istanbul in a snow storm frenzy on the third day of our trip. Fortunately Rita and I missed the early morning blizzard on account of being hungover from a wild evening of backgammon and raki-infused cheesy dancing with some local Turkish fellas. Suffice to say neither of us rose early to admire the snow white sky and when we did finally rise neither of us had the most joyous of heads.

Still nothing cures a night-o-seed like a delicious bowl of lentil soup and oven baked bread at the Rumi Cafe in Sultanahmet. 

Feed the seed! Feed the seed!

Obviously the only thing to be done when one is feeling a tad shady and it is blowing a gale outside is to go shopping at the Grand Bazaar. I bought my first backgammon board here back in 1996 for the princely sum of 5 pounds. The prices may have changed but the colours, the smells, the 'hey where you from?' has not.