As far as we were concerned the demonstrations were well humored and non-threatening whenever we came into contact with the guys.

On Tuesday the big demonstration with thousands and thousands of people was extremely well organized (by the unions I think). Participants seemed to be middle classes and were at least 50% middle aged with a strong contingent of oldies like us! At lot of singing banging and joking with each other.

 

Here are some pics as we walked through the demo on Tuesday.

 

The Istanbul taxi drivers are infiltrated with thieves!
By and large they tried doubling or trebling fares everytime we took a taxi not booked by the hotel.

We ended up here, in the middle if the park at the centre of the demos – deliberately planned by him.

Although even ‘we’ knew ways around the road blocks he decided to drive straight to one, stop, and then say he couldn’t go any further. Oh, and he wanted the same fee. Even though he only traveled less than half the distance and the charge had been given as double from the outward trip!