Istanbul Diaries

Hi dolls... I've been a bit busy but I'm back in London now so decided to share my Istanbul diaries. I did not have time to take proper pictures but I managed to get one or two from my cab lol. I even got on the metro and had to take a picture!!!

If you have low esteem, Istanbul will definitely give you a boost of confidence. The men are just hilarious, you can be walking on the streets and get compliments from random guys. Most of them can't speak English so it makes it funnier when they compliment you.

As soon as I arrived, my cabbie actually stopped to get gas and he came back with a cornetto ice-cream. The Nigerian girl in me was like hope this one isn't trying to jazz me before I wake up in one alley but the other side of me just said 'go with it'...

I love how you see a flag in almost every nook and cranny of Turkey... 

I love the window displays in all the stores in Istanbul... the attention and detail put in each one is breathtaking. Wish I could have taken pictures of each and everyone but I didn't have time (I have to take a day off during my next trip to tour this city).

For some reason this picture reminds me of home. I can't really explain why but it does!!!

And then the weather changed...

Have to share this story with you all... So I was shopping (work) and as I was about to pay, the lady behind the till was acting funny then she started speaking Turkish to my guide. All I could get out of the conversation was Africa and Londra (London). She was a little shaken but I was too busy trying to interpret what they were saying. 

After a few minutes she smiled at me and collected my money. I thought the whole episode was strange but we left after I paid. As soon as we were out, I asked my guide what they were talking about and I wasn't expecting his next words!!! So apparently, the woman asked what country I was from and he said Africa. She started talking about Ebola and that she was afraid to take money from me because it is a problem. He had to explain to her that I live in London and that was when she smiled and collected my money.

I was so upset with him. A lot of people do not understand the Ebola Virus (cause and prevention) and the few people who are educated find it unnecessary to explain to those who aren't. I would have gone back to explain to her but I didn't have time plus I had a lot to do.

• The suspected reservoirs for Ebola are fruit bats.
• Transmission to humans is thought to originate from infected bats or primates that have become infected by bats.
• Undercooked infected bat and primate (bush) meat transmits the virus to humans.
• Human to human transmission is only achieved by physical contact with a person who is acutely and gravely ill from the Ebola virus or their body fluids.

• Transmission among humans is almost exclusively among caregiver family members or health care workers tending to the very ill.
• The virus is easily killed by contact with soap, bleach, sunlight, or drying. A washing machine will kill the virus in clothing saturated with infected body fluids.
• A person can incubate the virus without symptoms for 2-21 days, the average being 5-8 days before becoming ill. THEY ARE NOT CONTAGIOUS until they are acutely ill.
• Only when ill does the viral load express itself first in the blood and then in other bodily fluids (to include vomit, feces, urine, breast milk, semen and sweat).
• If you are walking around you are not infectious to others.
• There are documented cases from Kikwit, DRC of an Ebola outbreak in a village that had the custom of children never touching an ill adult. Children living for days in small one room huts with parents who died from Ebola did not become infected.
• You cannot contract Ebola by handling money, buying local bread or swimming in a pool.
• There is no medical reason to stop flights, close borders, restrict travel or close embassies, businesses or schools.
• As always practice good hand washing techniques, but you will not contract Ebola if you do not touch a dying person.

Please note that SALT cannot prevent the virus.

Hope this helps.

R.I.P Robin Williams (so sad) you made my childhood special with belly laughs and wishful dreams. You are free now genie!!!

Bisous...xxx