<\/p>\n

The general consensus is that\u00a0Istanbul is amazing. “What? Wait. You’re going to Istanbul? OH. MY. GOD. I am so freaking JEAL-OUS!”. You almost just have to whisper the word ”Constantinople” in a room for people to start spontaneously orgasming all over the shop.<\/p>\n

Presumably it is fairly un-PC to say, therefore,\u00a0that for the moment at least, I’m not the biggest fan. I’m not sure quite what I was expecting, but I think it involved\u00a0a few more turrets, more old men with no teeth sitting on carpets and rather less being cold.<\/p>\n

There are some gems I’ve seen so far, indeed, and I fully expect — and hope — to look back on this post in a month’s time and shake my head in shame at this naive version of myself. For the moment, however, I have decided to give myself a little bit of space to be a moaning and disillusioned Brit.<\/p>\n

I moved here from London just over a week ago to work for an English-speaking daily newspaper here, based in\u00a0the ”Media Towers”\u00a0 located about 45 minutes into\u00a0the city’s\u00a0boomburb. The publication has a large staff based between here and the capital city, Ankara,\u00a0with a small number\u00a0from the U.S. or the\u00a0U.K.\u00a0The best thing about the office so far, apart from the stunning view of\u00a0some large industrial cranes and the airport, is the free\u00a0gym.<\/p>\n

On first impressions, it looked like a perfectly respectable example of a workplace fitness facility.\u00a0Upon closer inspection, however, this stuff could have come out of the Ark.\u00a0As I attempted to rev the treadmill\u00a0— last used by Noah himself — into some semblance of life, an elderly man materialized behind me,\u00a0hailing from roughly the same era.<\/p>\n

From his rather frantic gestures, I gathered that he was keen to show me round. This quickly turned into him putting me through one of the most grueling workouts I have ever had. It is remarkable how much pointing and shouting will drive you into pushing yourself to\u00a0extent that you emerge, an hour-and-a-half later, with your spine partially dislocated, limbs incapable of anything but the most basic of movements and a sense of absolute accomplishment.<\/p>\n

At least if Istanbul doesn’t win my heart I’ll leave with a smashing six pack (and potentially an ancient Armenian body-builder).<\/p>\n

By Hannah Bowman<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

A restless Brit with big dreams and limited cash flow, Hannah is an English graduate and former Publicist who has spent the past 18 months living and working in Central America. You can follow her wanderings at TheTangerineRidiculousness.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The general consensus is that\u00a0Istanbul is amazing. “What? Wait. You’re going to Istanbul? OH. MY. GOD. I am so freaking JEAL-OUS!”. You almost just have to whisper the word ”Constantinople” in a room for people to start spontaneously orgasming all over the shop. Presumably it is fairly un-PC to say, therefore,\u00a0that for the moment at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":13355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,2573],"tags":[2492,600,104],"yoast_head":"\n