348: Living the life of Reilly...

Sorry there's been no blog for a while. I've had my webmaster hat on. It comes down over my eyes so that I can't see anything else that is going on....

What everybody thinks I do.... ....sit around eating ice cream all day and living the life of Reilly.	What I actually do.... .. help young ladies (and men) improve their English skills
And sometimes this... I'm in the process of re-skilling.  ...Meet WebmasterDes (watch this space)	And sometimes translations.... .. can't admit to all those languages of course but in many instances “I know a man (or woman) who can"

347: An Englishman abroad

I'm in Berlin Tegel airport waiting for my connecting flight to Warsaw. The holiday is at an end and it's back to work tomorrow. In the meantime I've drunk all the gin* in the lounge here and have had to switch to beer. (If I switched to another spirit there's every danger I might miss my flight).
I enjoyed my time in Turkey despite the shortcomings of the hotel. I sometimes wonder how much our upbringing and experience of life in general shapes our expectations when we visit new places. I think we come to expect a certain standard but, naturally enough, different countries have different standards. Because I've been lucky enough to spend some time in 4 and 5 star hotels have I now come to expect a similar standard of service wherever I go? Or am I just being a Grumpy Old Man? When the time comes to write a review of the Kristal Beach hotel in Arapsuyu, near Antalya I shall enjoy helping to drag their average score down. A few petty grievances while I'm waiting for my flight. By all means comment and tell me I'm expecting too much. No coat hangers in the wardrobe and the safe in the room wasn't working - probably because it needed a new battery. When I went down to report these issues the man behind the reception desk just said no to both requests, suggesting I wasn't paying enough for that kind of service! I would accept that argument if I had played some part in negotiating a reduced rate but actually I just accepted the best  rate offered on Trivago. The room was on the 7th floor and the single lift was for guests and staff. It wasn't enough. Many "long" waits ensued. As a money-saving measure lighting in the corridors and toilets had been specially adapted to turn itself off after 3 microseconds. Picture two scenarios if you will: 1) standing in the corridor waiting "interminably" for a lift and waving your arms like a madman every few seconds. 2) standing in the toilet "doing the business" and having to wave every few seconds, thereby losing control of the operation in hand. What fun. Below is a picture of one of the cracks in the room. Normal "settling" or Jerry building? On day two there was a large hole in a corridor wall exposing some taps and pipework. It was repaired after a day of having to step around the mess. Internet on floor 7 came and went, seemingly at random. Much like the hot water really. 
Anyway, enough moaning. A word or two about Turkish people. I think all those I met were kind and helpful although occasionally I must confess I'm not sure if they were trying to start a friendship in order to a) sell me a carpet or b) introduce me to their sister. Particular praise to Omar the waiter who had obviously learnt the lesson that the friendlier you are with the guests the better a tip you are likely to get at the end of the week. His efforts were duly rewarded. (I suggested to him that the 2.30 at Ascot would romp home!). 
Would I go back? Yes to Turkey, yes to Antalya, no to the Kristal Beach hotel. I think next time I will try to find somewhere where there isn't Turkish music being played. Not my favourite I must confess.

A low-hanging pomegranate tree	Before you ask, no I didn't avail myself.

*there was only enough gin left in the bottle for one drink!

346: Antalya

I'm in Antalya in Southern Turkey. The temperature is 3 times what it was in Scotland last week. Here is the view of the Mediterranean from the hotel balcony. Marvellous. Not that I plan to be in it very often as I'm not a great fan of swimming but it's nice to look at and run along the beach.

I award the hotel -3 stars for a variety of reasons.  Perhaps I'll expand on that in another blog but this morning I must get out and soak up the sun. First though a few photos from Istanbul where I spent Tuesday (flying in on Monday and out on Wednesday). I did the usual touristy stuff by visiting the Blue Mosque, taking a boat trip on the Bosphorus and having fish for lunch in one of the myriad restaurants situated under the Galata bridge (which spans the Golden Horn).

"Galata Bridge From Tower" by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen"

		the spice of life (in big piles)
the open-deck tourist bus seems to be in every big city in the world.
dancing ships!	hustle and bustle	lots of new build too

345: 12 degrees

I'm in Golspie on the North East coast of Scotland, in the county of  Sutherland. It is 12 degrees Celsius, despite being the middle of Summer. What can I say, apart from Brrrr!
On the way here I stopped off in Yorkshire for a mini-holiday entitled "Yorkshire by Steam".  I first visited Yorkshire in 1967 and stayed there for two years at the Army Apprentices College at Penny Pot Lane, just outside Harrogate. In my formative years! Yorkshire is one of the larger English counties and is, or at least was, divided into three administrative regions called Ridings (West, North and East). I stayed in the Old Swan hotel in Harrogate. Its claim to fame, apart from now having hosted Des Buckley, was that Agatha Christie stayed (hid) there for 10 days in 1926.
The holiday included visits to York, to Whitby, and to the Bronte sisters' family home in Haworth. Here are a few photographs taken to mark the occasion.

Flowers at Harrogate railway station. A well-kept station.

Our tour guide holding forth on the history of York.
He also introduced us to the word "snickelway"

York minster. A minster is not the same thing as a cathedral, although York Minster is a cathedral as well as a minster. A minster is a church that was established during Anglo-Saxon times as a missionary teaching church, or a church attached to a monastery. A cathedral is the seat of a bishop (his seat, or throne, is called a cathedra). Maintenance and restoration of the minster is a never-ending task. It is built from a magnesian limestone and this type of stone only lasts a few hundred years before it has to be replaced. There was a static display with stone masons working on replacements. They are all hand-crafted.

A form of medieval punishment. The guilty person had their hands and head locked in position through the holes and the public was invited to throw rotting fruit and veg at them. This apparatus is called a pillory. Stocks are similar but are used for fastening the feet.

Whitby and its abbey	fishing nets or creels
I'm reminded of the pier at Sopot 2 weeks ago, although admission to this one is free!	The "raging" sea, off Whitby on Saturday

Halfway through the last century steam trains began to die out as faster, and cheaper, diesel trains came on-line (pun intended). Now however steam trains are enjoying a revival and there are many small branch lines in UK where enthusiastic volunteers have repaired/rebuilt/re-engineered steam locomotives and rolling stock. These non-British Rail lines are known as heritage railways and are hugely popular with holidaymakers - including me.

Two video clips to finish. One, a reading of the night mail train, a poem by W H Auden, and the other a song called "Young Girl" from Gary Pucket and the Union Gap. It was playing in night clubs in Harrogate in the late 60s and I remember it fondly.

344: I've been to Hel and back.

And a very enjoyable time I had there! Not quite as warm as I had been led to expect but still very pleasant.

Hel, as you will see from the pictures, is a small town at the end of a long spit of land 33 km from the Polish mainland, not too far from Gdansk. Interestingly, Kaliningrad is also on the map. Many of my readers will know that Kaliningrad is a Russian enclave and not far from Kaliningrad itself is the small town of Baltiysk, a naval base of the Russian Baltic fleet. I was there in two thousand something or other to act as an interpreter when a Royal Navy ship docked there on a friendly visit.

I'd been planning for a while to go to Gdansk and when I realised that the hotel wasn't conveniently located for public transport, and being too tight to pay for a taxi, I decided to hire a car and get more exploring done. The hotel was right on the sea front and, strangely, most of the conversation with the staff was in German. Luckily I could remember the key phrase "ein bier bitte." 

I went to Gdansk by train, on the Pendolino, the Polish equivalent of the French TGV. Very comfortable, a very smooth ride. I came back on an ordinary Inter-City train and that journey was more like you expect a train ride to be. Both journeys took roughly 3 hours. 

Gdansk, the place where opposition against the mighty Soviet Union started in the form of the Solidarity trade union, is very close to the cities of Gdynia and Sopot. These three cities are known collectively as Tricity.

On Friday evening I visited the old town in Gdansk. There was some rain but I managed to hide from it in a convenient restaurant. I ordered fish and it took forever to come – I think they had to go and catch it first.

Saturday saw an improvement in the weather. I drove to nearby Sopot and had a walk along the pier. I approached the pier by walking along the beach and then climbing onto it only later realising that I should have paid to get access to the pier. Whoops, breaking the law again!

And then the long road to Hel, via coffee and cake in Gdynia. The journey seemed to take forever, but I was determined to get there come hell or high water. On arrival it was time to sample that great Polish delicacy - pierogi. Then a wander around the town before setting off for the journey back to the hotel and "noch ein bier, bitte" using almost all my German words in one go.
Allow me to finish with, of course, Meatloaf singing Bat out of Hell.