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Post by flatandy on Jul 22, 2016 14:55:13 GMT
Are you sure those are your friends, OOTLG, and you're not just remembering Midnight Express?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2016 8:46:49 GMT
They weren't friends so much as those you meet on the road while hitching about. Istanbul, a lovely city btw, was always 'seething with intrigue'. And not the safest of places. After Italy, everything became weirder and weirder: the old Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey - as you got further east the culture change was a shock to the system, the Indian subcontinent being the final blow. Another guy I knew, French, had to fly home sick after two years in India; when he landed in Paris the reverse culture shock put him in a psychiatric hospital for a month.
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Post by flatandy on Jul 23, 2016 15:21:33 GMT
I've been to Istanbul 5 or 6 times and always loved it. And, frankly, it never felt particularly dangerous over the quarter century since I first went. Sure, it's more edgy than, say, Oxford or Orleans, but it's not really rougher than Paris or Manchester.
That said, I've not been since Erdogan shifted into full Putin mode. It may be different these days.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2016 15:44:09 GMT
Ah yes, but I guess you were a regular tourist; we were the dregs of overland hippydom.
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Post by flatandy on Jul 23, 2016 16:00:40 GMT
I reckon the dregs of overland hippydom are always more at risk of violence from both criminals and from the state than normal people are. And are also more likely to be utterly paranoid about intrigue, even when it doesn't exist.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2016 7:43:01 GMT
You're probably right. Exotic food, drug abuse, too much sex and laying about on foreign beaches tends to make you paranoid.
It was especially difficult for females who were frequently pestered and assaulted by local men: Muslims were the worst for this - lone female travellers were not at all safe.
And there was, incidentally, a spate of young overlanders being found dead, drained of blood, in the Bosphorus. Selling blood was one way of making spare cash to continue.
As a standard tourist one gets to miss all the fun.
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Post by Repat Van on Jul 24, 2016 8:32:36 GMT
You're probably right. Exotic food, drug abuse, too much sex and laying about on foreign beaches tends to make you paranoid. It was especially difficult for females who were frequently pestered and assaulted by local men: Muslims were the worst for this - lone female travellers were not at all safe. And there was, incidentally, a spate of young overlanders being found dead, drained of blood, in the Bosphorus. Selling blood was one way of making spare cash to continue. As a standard tourist one gets to miss all the fun. From what I've heard, the situation for young solo female travellers to Turkey hasn't changed much. |
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Post by perrykneeham on Jun 23, 2019 17:00:15 GMT
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Post by flatandy on Jun 23, 2019 20:35:30 GMT
Good result. Even Erdogan couldn't fiddle a defeat of this magnitude.
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Post by perrykneeham on Jun 23, 2019 20:36:24 GMT
Watch him try.
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mids
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Post by mids on Jun 23, 2019 20:57:52 GMT
Didn't know what they were voting for? People's vote? Confirmatory vote?
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Post by flatandy on Jun 23, 2019 21:11:41 GMT
At least the Istanbulians were allowed a second vote after accusations of dodginess.
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Post by Minge är en jävla besserwisser on Jun 24, 2019 7:02:48 GMT
I'm glad you see the parallels between a corrupt dictator trying to subvert democracy and remainers.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2019 10:27:07 GMT
Says a Remainer.
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Post by perrykneeham on Jun 24, 2019 10:36:06 GMT
Reformed remainer.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2019 10:38:26 GMT
Bit like Johnson and May.
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Post by perrykneeham on Jun 24, 2019 10:53:53 GMT
Still, I hope there won't be any violence. I don't want any Turks to turn up their toes.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2019 10:55:37 GMT
They've got the right shoes for it.
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Post by Minge är en jävla besserwisser on Jun 24, 2019 11:49:25 GMT
I found the bed wetting and crying too exhausting. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2019 12:20:54 GMT
Not man enough for the job, eh? Never mind, mids and baloo will comfort you.
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