All Good Thıngs

*Stuff*

The power cut goes on - so I read my Le Carre under a street lamp in the park across the road until I'm tired (I don't fancy more beer).

And on - so I buy a cigarette lighter to get me to my room. Next door is the only building in the block with electricity and it's because they're running the big generator right outside my window.

And on - so I get up the next mornıng and re-pack (around the Turkısh Carpet, which amazingly fits in - what else have I lost?)

The silver lining is that I'm up really early (and this is BST-2) and decide to take a Turkish Bath. I ask the hotelier who says I'll have enough money (the local ATMs are out with the power). I don't. I empty everything and reach 39.65 Lira of the required 40, which is enough to get in but leaves the masseur looking for his tip.

I can't decide whether he deserved a tip. The massage was good, but the double neck-crack at the end is the most likely cause of the headache I develop later.

I'm back at the hotel before 9am local time!

With no cash left I wander in search of another ATM getting thirstier and thirstier until I spot a hotel and remember I have some sterling that they change for me - saved!

The last must-see sight is the Topkapi Palace, used by the Ottoman sultans after they conquered Istanbul. I wander round it until midday, thinking about the life of the Sultan (I like my sitting room better than his) and the odd life of concubines, taken into the palace in their early teens to be educated, then move up a hierarchy. The Sultan would (so the plaques say) only sleep with the top rank comprising between 4 and 8 of them and, if they became pregnant, they would join the royal family.

Incidentally, the term "harem" refers to the private residences of the Sultan, his whole family, all the concubines and the eunuchs. I didn't spend long thinking about the odd lives of eunuchs.

I grab lunch of Moroccan Lamb based on the last of this morning's cash and pop onto an ınternet cafe one block up that actually has power and post thıs whıle I wait for the airport shuttle.