Istanbul was really interesting. I didn't love it like London or Paris, but it had amazing aspects. The basilica cisterns with their medusa head columns were beautiful and eerie, and the archaeological museum had amazing Greek, Roman, and Byzantine art. The history is fascinating and everywhere--the old city walls, the ancient streets, the hippodrome, the mosques at every turn.
Negatives were the lack of safety regulations, the animals roaming freely, that in many areas I felt very self-conscious as a woman alone, lack of decent vegan food at the group events (it was fine striking out on my own), and (recurring theme) not really knowing anyone in the group. (Some were really nice and made an effort, which I appreciated. Some not so much--one woman basically told me "that's just because you're young" every time I spoke.)
For a Lymond group, there was very little actual Lymond talk. The tour guides hadn't read the books, and most of the people seemed burned out on actually discussing the novels after all these years. The fannish culture clash was also unpleasant--someone told me they don't use tumblr because they're not "techie"! These days my fannish experience is all based around fic, vids, gifsets, picspams, squee, and meta--a fandom based in YahooGroups feels like the dark ages.
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Date: 2012-12-04 05:01 am (UTC)Istanbul was really interesting. I didn't love it like London or Paris, but it had amazing aspects. The basilica cisterns with their medusa head columns were beautiful and eerie, and the archaeological museum had amazing Greek, Roman, and Byzantine art. The history is fascinating and everywhere--the old city walls, the ancient streets, the hippodrome, the mosques at every turn.
Negatives were the lack of safety regulations, the animals roaming freely, that in many areas I felt very self-conscious as a woman alone, lack of decent vegan food at the group events (it was fine striking out on my own), and (recurring theme) not really knowing anyone in the group. (Some were really nice and made an effort, which I appreciated. Some not so much--one woman basically told me "that's just because you're young" every time I spoke.)
For a Lymond group, there was very little actual Lymond talk. The tour guides hadn't read the books, and most of the people seemed burned out on actually discussing the novels after all these years. The fannish culture clash was also unpleasant--someone told me they don't use tumblr because they're not "techie"! These days my fannish experience is all based around fic, vids, gifsets, picspams, squee, and meta--a fandom based in YahooGroups feels like the dark ages.