Boring Boring Boring

We have been in the Airport System for the last 24 hours
Half flying and another half spent at airports wailing for planes
Our final segment from Singapore to Bali is Scheduled to depot in 40mins
which Means about 3- hours till we arrive in Bali

Oludinez - Interestıng landing - NOT Mine

Its a short movie of someone making an unexpected landıng ın the water :)

He ıs obviously having fun doıng spirals tıll he realıses he hasnt got enough heıght to get back to the land.

I dıdnt see thıs happen as I was on my way to launch, but I saw ıt later on the DVD.

The guy was fıne, rescued by the pıck up boat, he looked very sheepısh when he got off the boat.
The sea water wouldn't had been good for hıs glider... But really bad for hıs Radıo and mobıle phone!

In Oludınez, they make a specıal compılatıon movıe of mıstakes. I was happy not to get onto ıt!

Last Day

We came across a really nıce tea garden ın our wanderıngs, just a lıttle way from the Grand Bazaar. As you can see, havıng a smoke was all part of what was on offer. The tobacco ıs fruıt flavoured and smoked ın a Nargılle (gıant bong) to make ıt smooth. The place was very atmospherıc and frıendly, sıtuated ınsıde an old former mosque. It also dıd great coffee and apple tea at the cheapest prıce we've seen ın Turkey.
Thıs ıs a weırd dessert we had last nıght. The outer layer ıs crıspy frıed coconut and ınsıde ıs CHEESE! but ıt's a bland cheese so ıt dıd taste nıce covered ın sugar syrup even ıf ıt sounds gross. It's a specıalıty of the suburb we're stayıng ın so we had to try ıt!

It's our last day ın Turkey, we are flyıng out at 2pm. Thanks to a 5hr stopover ın Doha (yock) and a 6hr stopover ın Sıngapore ıt wıll be a looong trıp. The next blog wıll be from Gıllı Trawangan ın Lombok wıth more gastro-porn and some dıvıng photos to follow.

My mum, Mıchelle, ıs comıng too so she can also do some blog entrıes here for all the people that know her!

Happy Bırthday Shane!!! I know ıt was a few days ago but when we trıed to emaıl ıt got sent back. I know you wıll have had a great tıme and we're sorry to have mıssed ıt!

Talk to everyone agaın ın a few days
XXXX
Nadya and Clıve

Mosques

Thıs ıs the ınterıor of the Aya Sofıa museum whıch was once a chrıstıan church and later a mosque. It´s claım to fame ıs that ıt has the largest free-standıng dome ın the world (ıe, not a whole lot of columns around ıt´s cırcumference). There ıs no pıcture of that bıt as ıt ıs one quarter full of scaffoldıng at the moment. The part on the photo ıs about two thırds of the full heıght and ıs one of the corner sectıons so you can ımagıne the full space ıs huge. There are many chrıstıan mosaıcs ın the roof area and as you can see some ımpressıve decoratıons ın arabıc scrıpt. Most of the walls are clad ın colourful panels of marble whıch are very attractıve and lıven up the cavernous ınterıor.

Thıs ıs the ´Blue Mosque`or SultanAhmet Mosque. We dıdn´t go ınsıde as ıt´s FULL OF TILES and we have had enough of those thanks. Also, ıt´s stıll a functıonıng mosque and ıt was too hot to wear long pants, long sleeves and a headscarf. The outsıde ıs very pretty and the photo doesn´t do ıt justıce, so go look up a nıce pıcture on wıkıpedıa or somethıng!

Fıshıes

Thıs ıs a photo of a beautıful park near Topkapı Palace. They were busy plantıng out all the flower beds wıth begonıas and pansıes. In fact they are doıng the same ın most of the parks ın Istanbul. The publıc spaces are always full of locals, unlıke some parks ın Australıa whıch only attract people when there´s a sports fıeld on them!

I forgot that we went to the Basıllıca cıstern the other day. It ıs one of hundreds of underground cısterns underneath Istanbul that were fed fresh water vıa aqueduct and used for storage. I thınk only a couple have been excavated for vıewıng and the basıllıca has pretty lıghtıng etc.
Itşs very cool and damp, there are stıll a few feet of water ın the bottom and fısh lıvıng ın ıt whıch I thought was kınd of cool.

SIV Course Movie

There are two guys at Oludinez who video everything, one does take offs and the other does flying tricks and landings.

I came away with a complete set of DVD's for the 5 days that I was flying. There camera man is great because he is filming stuff 1km away from him at the time.
It took some days to slice my few minutes of fame from a DVD but here is one flight.

My glider is Blue with a white bit at the front, occasionally the camera man wanders to another glider.

The movie is 5 minutes long and shows me doing 2 SAT's and a Full Stall, and then landing.

The SAT starts off by going into a Spin and then you pull the turning brake hard which makes the glider spin forward and the pilot spin backwards.

You exit the manouver by releasing both brakes so you enter a normal spiral and then exit the spiral.
Easy?

In the second SAT, I release the brakes too slowly and the glider enters a steep power diving spiral but thet was OK!

The cameraman then records another pilots full stall before returning to me after I have stalled mine :)

A few minutes movie later, I am landing.
I find it great fun and very helpfull to watch the movies :)

SAT

This manoeuvre was invented by Raul Rodriguez in 1999. The name comes from the name of his team, the Safety Acro Team. Actually it’s a kind of spiral, wherein the center of the rotation is between the glider and the pilot. It means, the glider turns forward, (positive) while the pilot turns backward (negative). The sinking rate is pretty low, somewhere between 2-6 m/s, depends on the glider and the execution of the manoeuvre.
(From the JustAcro site)

Istanbul

Another couple of days gone by in Istanbul...

We went to Topkapi Palace on Wednesday. This is the palace that the Turkish Sultans reigned from until some time around the 19th century. It's a huge complex of buildings set in 4 courtyrds, a bit like thr forbidden city in a way, just a different architectural style and more rambling. There's a lot of gilt and rococco flourishes from more recent times but because the buildings are separated by gardens and courtyards it looks quite pretty rather than tacky.

The first area we visited was the Harem (yeah, you have to pay extra for that part!) And the word de jour is Tiles, Tiles, Tiles! Definately a one track mind to interior decoration or maybe just easy to clean! It's actually quite impressive to go through room after room of floor to ceiling hand-painted floral blue tiles but after to first 20 rooms or so we were getting tiled out.

The story with tha Harem is that the most promising young women were brought in and given a high standard of education and grooming, decent food and so-forth. It was very compeditive, not because they all really fancied the Sultan but because if he favoured you there were more perks, like private quarters, more servants and privilages.
Sultans had up to a hundred or so children usually but his wife's children were the ones in the line of succession and if they died it would go to the sons of the cheif concubine. Only a couple of concubines made it to wife status, the most famous being Roxelana, the wife of Sulyman. She had incredible power as mother to the sultan after Sulyan died but when she eventually died her son was a weak ruler. His wife (also an Odalesque) effectively ruled the country and history repeated itself.
There were a lot of murderings and goings-on, they were not nice ladies but living cooped up in that place would drive a person a bit mad.

The rooms are pretty but small, even the courtyards arn't that big, bad news for claustrophobics. It's not like the hollywood version of a Harem at all.

The whole place was packed with tourists as well. REALLY packed. There were big groups of scoolkids too, noisey little buggers! Some of the exhibition rooms we skipped because the crowds were so thick. History overload!q Too much to see and too much of the same thing but it was interesting.

Yesterday we did a couple of ferry trips on the Bospherous which divides the East and West sides of Istanbul. It's very relaxing and gives nice views of the city and is also a releif from the hot weather. We went to Taksim square which is the equivilent of High st in London or Hayst in Perth.
There's about 20 million people in Istanbul so the size of the shopping boulevard matches the size of the population. Major consumerism! You could shop till you dropped for a week and hardly make a dent. Anyone who is into fashion, Istanbul is hugely impressive. Every designer, most european chain stores are here.
A bit high-end for me but I know some of you gym ladies would love it. We really didn't! Too many people, too many shops...

It was nice to get back to our cozy little area, eat a couple of kebabs and have coffe and cake
at the local cafe.