An iPhone ban? the new Turkish delight

Something in your life is a real surprise and even before you share that eyebrow raising moment with an oldie you know the most likely response: A shrug, a yawn and, oh, he’s seen it all before.

I offered the kitchen radio the opposite today when it announced that Turkey will boycott electronic

products from the United States in return for the spoilt brat’s anti-Turkey stance, which has driven the Turkish lira to record lows.

Let me show you the reverse of today's political anger.

As part on an overland adventure beginning in Australia, I eventually arrived in Turkey, via Iran.

Almost impossible to believe

To my amazement, I witnessed a national embrace of America like – to borrow another popular saying – you wouldn’t believe.

I certainly found it almost impossible to believe. I was a young and impressionable journalist watching puzzled, mystified even.

Huge crowds were turning out on the streets of Istanbul for a vast military parade ... with bands playing music that seemed rather familiar.

Isn’t that American music, I asked an attractive Turkish lady student. She shone with the opposite of expected distaste.

‘It is American,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘The parade is showing of our love of all matters of America.’

A vast parade, a huge crowd, to praise America? Now, I thought, I’ve seen everything, and just about its opposite.

Political reverence

On the plus side, the US had put a man on the moon, but they also had Tricky Dickie in charge.

His Vietnam war and highly questionable drugs policy would be reflected before long in the film Midnight Express.  Continues on the blogs for my ocean travel book, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com