Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this and I hope you have a happy and healthy 2012. Christmas in Turkey is a very muted affair and only really celebrated by the Christians living here of course. The shops have a lot of decorations though, Turks generally use the same sort of decorations to celebrate New Year (Yıl Başı). Nearly every Christmas Day I have been here has been a beautiful day with warm sunshine and clear blue skies and this year is no exception. Here’s a picture of Minnie in the sun this morning.

I had a very enjoyable week in Prague recently. The weather wasn’t much to shout about most of the time but walking around the city looking at the famous buildings in the evening was very pleasant. Here are some photographs:

Charles Bridge is a famous piece of old architecture.

It has an arch at both ends and plenty of other interesting architecture around it.

In the square there is a famous astronomical clock with automata figures that stand at the openings in turn when the hour comes.

Also in the square was a Christmas Market with stalls selling souvenirs, various foods and hot wine which we had a go at.

Also had a lovely tree with cascading lights that a still photo doesn’t do justice to.

This lamp caught my eye

And these decorated eggs in a shop window looked photogenic.

Shindler’s lift caused a smile as it took us up in the world.

No relation to the hero played by Liam Neeson in the film Shindler’s List apparently.

I renewed my health insurance the week before last and the agent asked me if I’d like to go to the hospital in Antalya to see a specialist about my finger (previous post explains) to see if some reconstruction surgery would be possible. It seemed like a good idea so I went, he also booked me in for a complete medical check-up which had very good results apart from slightly raised blood pressure. Anyway the upshot was that I will go in January for an operation on my hand to fix the problem. I’ll let you know how it goes, hopefully with pictures if I’m allowed to take them.

Here’s another Christmas Day photograph to end with.