One of the fun things about moving to a new country is trying out the local snacks. By which I mean the snacks you get in the supermarket. I'm not actually the type of person who likes to eat chocolate, biscuits or crisps very often, so when I am tempted I want it to be worth my while! I'd been watching a video by Dina Tokio on snacks of Turkey and one of the snacks that really piqued my interest was the Jaffa Cake esque snack called Biscolata Pia. Apparently a Jaffa cake, but white chocolate and lemon flavour? Well, that sounded good to me!
Let's just talk about Jaffa Cakes for a moment. You know what they are right? Jaffa Cakes are probably one of the most popular snacks in the UK - a small circular cake with a thin layer of orange jelly, topped with chocolate. Literally I don't I've met anyone in the UK who doesn't like Jaffa Cakes... The only problem is that because they're so popular, literally the only flavour you find (limited editions aside) is chocolate orange. And this, my friend, is where Biscolata Pia comes in! Essentially a Jaffa Cake but in loads of different flavours!
Look at all these bad boy flavours! Classic orange, raspberry, double choc, and white chocolate lemon. I've tried all of the flavours except double chocolate (it doesn't tempt me as much... I love fruit and choco combinations the best) so I think I'm in a fair position to review the taste.
Orange: like the Jaffa Cake original but maybe not as good. But very close! The orange flavour jelly is not as strong, and the cake is a little sweeter and not as soft in texture. But the dark chocolate coating is definitely far superior! Overall, not as good as the original Jaffa Cake but certainly a worthy alternative.
Raspberry: yes please! Exactly the same as above but with a raspberry jelly which is just perfect. In my opinion this is the best of the Biscolata Pia flavours. Not too sweet, a perfect combination.
Lemon white chocolate: this was the flavour that first piqued my interest. It's certainly good! But, having tried the other flavours I think this one has been knocked from the top spot. Because of the white chocolate (as opposed to dark chocolate on the other flavours) this one is a bit sweeter. Tasty but too sweet to binge eat.
Overall I love Biscolata Pia. I small, sweet cake that's a little bit dry (I can't find the word... you know what I mean?), delicious jelly, and excellent chocolate that cracks well. Please try it!
Monday, 22 May 2017
Tuesday, 9 May 2017
How to cross the road
Knowing which way to look when you come to cross a road is, in my opinion, one of those natural things that is so ingrained that you don't even have to think about it! Like walking. Now that I'm in Turkey and people drive on the other side of the road I'm completely baffled! When I get to a road I look both ways, and then look again, and then make a judgement if I should cross the road. But if you ask me which way the traffic is coming from, or if I'm turning my head one way out of second nature or because of traffic, I have no idea! I'm just standing there turning my head all around. When I lived in Japan this wasn't a problem because Brits and Japanese drive on the same side of the road - hallelujah. But so far so good here, I'm managing to spot cars! Hopefully I'll get the hang of it soon enough.
The problem with not knowing where the traffic is coming from is that crossing the road is just a little bit more difficult - I've suddenly lost my confidence! Is the road safe, is it not? Heck, I don't know. Let me triple check... I'm like a roadside meerkat!
Added to this is the Istanbul drivers and traffic. People here love bitching about the traffic congestion, and fair enough! As of 2016 there were over 20 million cars in Istanbul (http://www.greatistanbul.com/numbers.html), apparently. Don't forget the buses, lorries and general other road stuff. I haven't been here long enough (or gone far enough!) to be bothered by the traffic yet, but I'm pretty certain that if I had to spend most of my time here on the road I'd eventually lose the will to live. No, my problem is that I'm too much of a wuss to cross the road! Drivers here don't exactly follow the same driver ethics that I'm used to back home in the UK. For example, if you're a real ass driving through the pedestrian green light is a possibility! You'll get a shouting at from a pissed off Turkish pedestrian but that doesn't seem to be much of a bother. While I accept that jay walking pedestrians aren't exactly following the rules either, sometimes if you don't jay walk there's no chance of crossing the road! Back in the UK I was fairly confident about the road rules and direction of traffic so I would jay walk without too much bother. As an aside though, you can't compare traffic in Cornwall to Istanbul! Here I jay walk with about 60% confidence. I try to look all confident and local but I bet I ain't fooling no-one.
So how exactly do I cross the road? Aha, well! I'm proud to say I've invented a brilliant tactic - tag teaming! What you do is, spot a local and walk or stand just beside or behind them and when they make the move so do you! They seem to know what they're doing! Chances of crossing the road are suddenly improved. Drivers seem to take 2 pedestrians far more seriously than just one, and if you're not too confident about weaving between cars stuck in a temporary traffic jam then I really recommend this tactic.
And when in doubt, there's probably an underpass somewhere eventually!
The problem with not knowing where the traffic is coming from is that crossing the road is just a little bit more difficult - I've suddenly lost my confidence! Is the road safe, is it not? Heck, I don't know. Let me triple check... I'm like a roadside meerkat!
Added to this is the Istanbul drivers and traffic. People here love bitching about the traffic congestion, and fair enough! As of 2016 there were over 20 million cars in Istanbul (http://www.greatistanbul.com/numbers.html), apparently. Don't forget the buses, lorries and general other road stuff. I haven't been here long enough (or gone far enough!) to be bothered by the traffic yet, but I'm pretty certain that if I had to spend most of my time here on the road I'd eventually lose the will to live. No, my problem is that I'm too much of a wuss to cross the road! Drivers here don't exactly follow the same driver ethics that I'm used to back home in the UK. For example, if you're a real ass driving through the pedestrian green light is a possibility! You'll get a shouting at from a pissed off Turkish pedestrian but that doesn't seem to be much of a bother. While I accept that jay walking pedestrians aren't exactly following the rules either, sometimes if you don't jay walk there's no chance of crossing the road! Back in the UK I was fairly confident about the road rules and direction of traffic so I would jay walk without too much bother. As an aside though, you can't compare traffic in Cornwall to Istanbul! Here I jay walk with about 60% confidence. I try to look all confident and local but I bet I ain't fooling no-one.
So how exactly do I cross the road? Aha, well! I'm proud to say I've invented a brilliant tactic - tag teaming! What you do is, spot a local and walk or stand just beside or behind them and when they make the move so do you! They seem to know what they're doing! Chances of crossing the road are suddenly improved. Drivers seem to take 2 pedestrians far more seriously than just one, and if you're not too confident about weaving between cars stuck in a temporary traffic jam then I really recommend this tactic.
And when in doubt, there's probably an underpass somewhere eventually!
Thursday, 4 May 2017
The sound of silence
It seems fitting that I should first talk about the inspiration for the title of this blog. No, I'm not some sort of night-owl, party-goer! Infact, I'm an incredibly light sleeper and therein lies the problem. Istanbul is a noisy city!! And I really mean this, not as someone who came from a super quiet city, but as a fact. There are some statistics on it https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/03/these-are-the-cities-with-the-worst-noise-pollution/. As I type, I'm being serenaded by my upstairs neighbour's techno-pop tunes. Actually, it could be some sort of video game music... but I digress.
It's not that I don't expect a certain level of noise! We live in a living world, of course there's going to be noise, but people driving down my street and honking their horns at 3am, etc isn't cool. Honestly, can't they hear the noise they're making? Don't they consider the people who live here? I'm pretty sure the intention is to make as much noise as possible, actually. Rev your motorbike under my windowsill? Sure, why not? Get your mates to honk their car horns in unison for 5 minutes? Great!
I used to live in Edinburgh. It's a small city! Like, so much smaller than Istanbul, but even in Edinburgh I could hear noises from around me. One of the flats I lived in was an ex-Council flat, and it definitely didn't have any soundproofing. Even my neighbour's snoring managed to filter down to my ears...The slam of the main door, cheers when the local football team scored, the mouse shuffling down the walls... you get the picture. But, to a certain degree, when my neighbours went to sleep, so did the noise. This city doesn't sleep and neither does the noise.
Every now and then there's a moment when the sound of a motorbike being excessively revved, or the horns of about 5 cars aren't being simultaneously honked. Just the gentle swish of a car passing by, or a simit seller advertising his freshly baked good, and it's lovely. Proof that I'm living in a city, without being disturbed by it. It's like a moment of wonderful calm. But then some idiot on a motorbike drives by...
My boyfriend manages to sleep through all the noise so give it a few months and I'll probably have adapted. Either that or I'll have gone deaf!
It's not that I don't expect a certain level of noise! We live in a living world, of course there's going to be noise, but people driving down my street and honking their horns at 3am, etc isn't cool. Honestly, can't they hear the noise they're making? Don't they consider the people who live here? I'm pretty sure the intention is to make as much noise as possible, actually. Rev your motorbike under my windowsill? Sure, why not? Get your mates to honk their car horns in unison for 5 minutes? Great!
I used to live in Edinburgh. It's a small city! Like, so much smaller than Istanbul, but even in Edinburgh I could hear noises from around me. One of the flats I lived in was an ex-Council flat, and it definitely didn't have any soundproofing. Even my neighbour's snoring managed to filter down to my ears...The slam of the main door, cheers when the local football team scored, the mouse shuffling down the walls... you get the picture. But, to a certain degree, when my neighbours went to sleep, so did the noise. This city doesn't sleep and neither does the noise.
Every now and then there's a moment when the sound of a motorbike being excessively revved, or the horns of about 5 cars aren't being simultaneously honked. Just the gentle swish of a car passing by, or a simit seller advertising his freshly baked good, and it's lovely. Proof that I'm living in a city, without being disturbed by it. It's like a moment of wonderful calm. But then some idiot on a motorbike drives by...
My boyfriend manages to sleep through all the noise so give it a few months and I'll probably have adapted. Either that or I'll have gone deaf!
Tuesday, 2 May 2017
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