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Winter has arrived, maybe is something to do with the time change or the fact that we spent some times in a warm country, but I tell you that Edinburgh is cool (in both meanings). Just today, the day after the clocks went back one hour, the temperature in the Scottish capital remained single-digit all day long. Considering that the darkness will fall an hour soon, I can only imagine that tonight we are going to get close to zero degrees C.

And what to do in this conditions? Well people though it was a good idea to create a wee snow ramp just off George Square and make some snowboarders jump everywhere. This show attracted some local young folks, willing to experience the chilled temperature and the extreme music first hand (or first ear!).

Snowboard in Edinburgh!

To be honest with you this is the worst time of the year, going out is not as good fun as it was previously and the darkness puts you in “lazy” mode. What I tend to do is ignore the thermometer and get on with the same things that I used to do during the summer, in fact yesterday the run in Portobello was simply brilliant.

Considering that we still had some time to spare we decided to go for a cruise in the Bosporus and enjoy a Turkish bath.

The cruise was quite interesting, Istanbul’s sea line is extremely undulated and a variety of residence and hotels are a stone away from the sea. Others boats in that strip of see include everything you can imagine, from a wee fisherman boat to a ferry crammed with commuters going back to the Asian side. From large international cruisers stopping over for some days in the city to huge freight containers carrier (probably the biggest floating objects I’ve ever seen). The cruise was enjoyable with a comfortable upper deck with nice sofas instead that plastic chairs.

On our very last day in town, taking into consideration the length of the trip back we decided to go for a Turkish bath. The offer as you can imagine in Istanbul is really wide, so we went for one near our hotel that turned out to be the oldest in town. To be fair, Cagaloglu Hamami now is a bit of a touristic spot but considering that we went at 10 in the morning it was all for our self. It was good to be massaged after days spent walking everywhere, the place itself is simply beautiful. The masseur was extremely powerful, be advised! At the end of it I was feeling completely revitalised and ready for the long and painful trip back.

We also did something that Manuela likes very much; shopping. Normally I hate it but in Turkey there is an interesting twist to it; haggling. So watching my sweet half dealing with sellers at both the Grand Bazaar and the Spicy Bazaar was a real treat. As we already knew the price that you are aiming for is half what the seller asks for! As you can guess it take a little longer than buying a pack of sugar at your local supermarket but it is much more fun.

Considering the hard work that we put in the first two days visiting with one sight after the other, it was time to relax for me while Manuela will dedicate herself to some healthy shopping!

My way of relaxing this time was reading and running – so I went for a couple of nice runs by the shore. Running when on holiday is not only good to keep yourself fit, but it is a way to explore little alleys and corners that would be normally overlooked. During my run I saw some shoddy places with homeless sleeping everywhere and litter spread in every cover. I didn’t only came across the grey part of Istanbul but I’ve also witnessed tens of people fishing with their kids on Sunday morning, very clean and well kept public parks and a funny dog that decided to run with me for more than half an hour. As usual if you are curious check this out.

Considering that by that time my Turkish is not existent I wasn’t able to read the local newspaper so I had to rely on my own book. About the latter I bought it home, during a targeted expedition. In fact when I’m travelling somewhere I look for relevant literature. The first time that I did this was before our trip to Cuba last year, in that occasion I read Cuba Diaries by Isadora Tattlin. In this occasion I went to the bookstore with the same goal, but I have to tell you is not easy to spot the right book. Most of the time travel literature is next to the travel guide section, but it is ordered by author an not by name of the country. So when I found The Bastard of Istanbul in a total different part of the store I was perplex at least. This book by Elif Shakaf is an interesting introduction to the history of Turkey and Istanbul described through a modern day novel. I bought it without knowing the level pressure that the author had to undertake, this book was in fact accused by the Turkish government to ‘insulting Turkishness’.