Day 55, here in Istanbul.
It i's a hot day today! Yeah baby.
We're Marianne and Chris,
in May 2018, we quit the 9-5,
rented our house to travel full-time.
Like everybody,
the Coronavirus is affecting our daily lives,
and our around-the-world drive, has now come to a standstill.
We give you an insight into our daily lives,
self-isolating in a car park, in Istanbul.
Well it's hotting up here in Turkey,
it is about 28 or 29 degrees C
and Chris and I have got the awning out,
we're sat outside and we've been working all morning.
Anyway we've got coffee,
which seems a little bit crazy as it is so hot!
This morning, a lovely young couple just walked up to the van,
they checked in with security first.
They walked up, kept their distance,
and just gave us a bag!
It's just so nice!
Look at this !
We have talked about this one before,
This is Mariannes favourite one!
Her favourite one!
It looks like Honey Shredded wheat for those back home.
And i've got very sticky fingers now from touching it! yes you have!
This has to be eaten with a coffee,
let me just try it to make sure it's all right for you!
What!!
Oh !!
Can I have the crunchy bit? I prefer the crunch!
It's all good!
I'm just gonna do that.
Very good!
So one of the highlights of our week,
is emptying our waste water!
which is just on the other side of the car park,
which we're going to do now because it's full,
But also as the weather is warming up here in Istanbul,
we have decided that we're going to park the van in a new place here,
facing the other direction so that the doors facing towards the hotel,
because the sun comes round this way,
and in the afternoon, even with the awning out,
it gets really hot and very very bright.
So we will park lengthways rather than across the car park.
Are you ready my love?
I'm ready,
and if we park there, we're using nature's shade,
there's a big tree there,
because the sun comes around, this tree creates shade,
in the corner of this car park.
So we're move into that corner.
I think It is 31 C degrees, in the next few days, so it's going to get warm.
Forward a bit more!
So that's all our washing up water coming out there,
we're just going to flush a bit of fresh water through just to stop any smells in the drain.
We've got a little hose here.
Good morning Ali, Okay?
All right, you?
Okay!
Good job,
so this is our new spot!
It's a little bit better,
it's should create a bit more shade around here.
And from this tree.
So we have just got to move the table,
and we're all good!
Good morning,
so it is day 61 in self isolation here in Istanbul,
and it's another beautiful sunny day today.
We normally get the awning out first thing in the morning,
but today is actually quite windy.
So we've set up behind the van,
so this little area here we've moved the table behind,
opened the door to give a little bit of shade,
but we think we're going to move the van back back this way,
because it will then act as a bit of a wind barrier today.
We're sharing stories from our friends around the world during this pandemic.
So here's a short clip to show you what our friends at Seal Rescue Ireland are up to.
Hi Chris and Marianne from TREAD the Globe.
We're the team from Seal Rescue Ireland,
you came to visit us about two years ago,
and we just wanted to check in and see how you're doing,
and let you know how we're getting along during this covid 19 pandemic.
Since the pandemic started, we had to close our doors to visitors.
And we've had to cancel all public fundraising events,
so although fundraising has taken a hit, our work behind closed doors does continue.
Wildlife rehabilitation is considered essential service, so we're still rescuing seals.
We're still caring for seals,
and in fact we've had a lot of seals that right about now are entering their time to be released.
So we've been releasing lots of seals,
and live streaming them so people can join us from home.
We've also taken this opportunity as a time to make lots of maintenance upgrades around the centre.
We've painted our centre inside and out, and
we've been tending to our biodiversity garden,
and planting lots and lots of trees,
we've also been caring for our patch within our two kilometre radius,
we have been doing lots of litter picks and we're even doing some bio monitoring now,
to really explore and appreciate the flora and fauna that are in our own backyards.
So we hope you're staying safe and healthy wherever you are,
and for everyone watching this please stay home stay safe.
We're all in this together, and we're really looking forward to coming back together,
once again once the pandemic is over.
So thanks from everybody here at Seal Rescue Ireland.
So today is Day 62 of self isolation here in Istanbul - Turkey.
And today is another special day,
it's the 19th May,
And today is the commemoration of Ataturk Youth and Sports Day.
And normally what happens on this day every year is throughout the country,
there are sporting events held today,
and all the way from the Black Sea to Ankara.
Young athletes march and and carry flags,
I'm not sure whether it's happening today because of the lockdown,
but today we've already seen a procession of motorbikes going down the the street behind the van.
Celal very kindly caught it on camera for us today.
And we've heard that tonight,
people will sing the National Anthem!
At around a 7 o'clock tonight,
I can already see that some of the houses and flats have hung their Turkish flags out,
so it will be really nice to see,
so we'll come back out tonight,
And one of the things the guys here have been doing, is planting vegetables in the flower bed.
It's too hot to be working!
it's very hot!
Tomatoes! Good job!
look - he's planting lots of tomatoes here!
So the guys here have been working really hard.
Growing the the vegetables here.
They've also weeded all the flowerbeds,
all the way around the van here,
it's looking good!
We've been helping,
because they planted these cucumber plants,
and the slugs have been getting them,
so what we've done, is put some eggshells and salt around them,
and we've been coming out at night and flicking off all the snails and slugs that we see!
Just to keep them going but there's there's a few that have lost the battle.
But that's really nice, and the mint's growing well here.
It is a shame that we haven't got the ingredients for mojito!
So it's all it's all been weeded and we water it.
And now we're taking you all the way to Australia!
Hi Chris and Marianne, from TREAD the Globe,
we are Marissa and Elan.
The "Guassis" and we met exactly a year ago in Semuc Champey, in Guatemala!
so Happy Anniversary!
We have since returned to Australia,
and moved up to Queensland.
Because of the travel restrictions we haven't been able to go back to Sydney to visit our family.
But on the bright side we're in a beautiful part of the world, we have amazing beaches like the one behind us,
that we can enjoy. Today for the first time we had breakfast at a cafe.
We've both been able to work, so fortunately we haven't had too many issues.
We've been keeping busy, been trying a few puzzles,
and we've been trying to do some arts and crafts, but otherwise just been living up here on the coast.
We're quite lucky in Australia, our numbers of coronavirus patients have be quite low.
So they have decided to start opening up a little bit more,
and hopefully we're going to be able to travel soon and see our family,
and hopefully we can meet you guys somewhere in the world soon.
Stay safe guys.
We're just catching up with the news online.
4 day nationwide lockdown between the 23rd and the 26th of May.
and then it says,
that there will be additional travel restrictions extended for 15 of Turkey's Provinces.
Istanbul is one of them,
for a period of 15 days,
and looking at another paper here,
it says that the travel ban will continue between the 20th May and the 3rd June.
That's not too bad, so it's saying it's extended until the 3rd June.
Which is a little bit after Ramadan.
So now we're going to probably spend tomorrow thinking of some ideas,
working out the plan, there's lots to think about.
So we'll be sure to share that with you!
It's the National Youth Day here in Turkey,
it commemorates their Independence, back in the early 1900s.
So we are expecting the National Anthem to be sung from the balconies,
as they did for Children's Day,
and just to get in the spirit of things,
What have you done love?
I have put one of our favourite flags in the world on our home.
There you go! so we've got the Turkish flag here, just to be part of the celebrations.
Well now we have been here so long we feel like residents of Istanbul!
It is only natural to join in!
So the guys are coming out,
the guys are coming out on the balconies,
I think they do this for every National Bank Holiday.
It's a very nice way.
The guys have just told me that ramadan is finishing in three nights,
so in four days there's going to be some partying and some celebrating,
to celebrate the end of Ramadan,
Everyone's so nice, we've got such a lovely group and family.
So we're excited,
and there's our brother up on the balcony!
It's the National Anthem.
Marianne holding the flag for the National Anthem.
I am trying to film the guys on the balcony singing.
It is nearly nine o'clock,
and we've come back outside because apparently at 9 o'clock,
there will be more singing,
and have celebrations!
It's fireworks!
I can hear fireworks!
We've got five minutes to go, but you can actually hear fireworks on the other side of the City,
and they're really loud, because I thought it was thunder!
I don't know whether the camera is going to pick it up?
so with all these fireworks that seem to be going on forever,
you wonder why they're doing them when nobody can go out and see them,
but of course they're going to be televised and shown, it's all happening now down by the main bridge in Istanbul.
Turkey has capped off its Youth and Sports day,
with a spectacular fireworks display here in Istanbul.
I think that's the spirit isn't it?
You can't let this world epic pandemic just to stop everything.
You still have to celebrate ! Even if it is people standing out on their balconies are listening to it.
Exactly, it's the way forward.
Marianne's got her Turkish flag and her mask, Celal's got his mask on and he's got his flag,
and Ali our neighbours come down.
just when you thought it was all going to calm down,
The general came out with his lights!
Ah and that's why they've done the letter M - for Mustafa!
but there's a lot of bangs! I can try and do sign language for fireworks!
so we're expecting songs from the houses here,
songs from the hotel
songs from the building there,
the people breaking lockdown should be singing over there!