The thing about Australia is that it’s just like Britain, except completely different. And if that sounds paradoxical, bear with me. So the Sydney suburbs could be Britain. Architecturally, there are similarities: the small parade of shops near where my son lives in Bronte are just like the row of shops in West Finchley in North London where I grew up. There are neatly manicured grass verges, we all speak the same language, and the sense of humour is just like being home.
But then it is all different. The soundscape is as different from the UK as possible. Screeching kookaburras are like nothing else, in fact any amount of birdlife: the ibises, exotic parrots, cockatoos are just species you do not see (or hear in Blighty). The flora and fauna is tropical. And as we all know Australia, with its plethora of deadly spiders, snakes, sharks and crocs, can be a dangerous place!
But at Christmas the sense of everything being the same but totally different is even more acute. The dissonance is off the scale. But we’ll return to that.
When you’re going to Australia for Christmas – or any other time for that matter – you have to work out the best route to go. We’ve always gone either via Singapore or the Gulf, but was interested to see that Turkish Airlines now fly from Istanbul to Sydney, and so we embarked on something we’d not done before: and that’s fly to Sydney with two stops as opposed to one. The additional brief stop is in Kuala Lumpur. But from next year, when the airline takes delivery of its A350-1000 aircraft, it will be a 17 hour non-stop flight from Istanbul to Sydney.
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If you’re of the view that all these international airlines are much of a muchness, with Turkish you need to think again. For a start on the flight we had a chef, who took charge of all the meal preparations. So there was a cabin crew in their smart uniform, and a chef with chef’s hat and all.
Now if you’re imagining scenes from The Bear or Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares it’s nothing like that. There are no flaming skillets or flaming tempers. But the food in business class is beautifully presented, served on an elegant trolley that makes it feel like a totally different experience from any other airline I’ve travelled. The hors d’oeuvre selection was absolutely top notch.
Most importantly, seeing as we were due to land on Christmas Eve, the plane was perfectly on time.
So let me return to Christmas in Sydney, and why it is so discombobulating. In the car from the airport all the Christmas songs are playing: there are chestnuts roasting on an open fire, calls for let it snow, let it snow, let it snow – and of course Bing dreaming of a white Christmas. But I look at the thermometer and it’s 28C outside. It’s palm trees not firs.
At my son’s house there’s a picture on the fridge of his two little ones sitting in the predictable posed photo with Santa (with the kids – rightly – looking distinctly uncomfortable sitting next to this total stranger). There he is with a wild mop of a wig covered by the obligatory hat – tick, the big white beard – tick, a red and white belted tunic – tick. And then you carry on looking down, and he’s bloody well got flowery shorts on and red Converse trainers. Sorry. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. No self-respecting Santa would dare board his sleigh like that. Rudolf would never countenance it.
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It extends to food, too. Who wants a great big turkey with all the trimmings? Christmas is al fresco, some shrimps thrown on the barbie while blowing the foam off a cold one (Australian for beer), that are sitting, chilled, in the esky (cool box).
But honestly, is there anywhere better in the world to see the new year in? The fireworks on the Sydney Harbour bridge and the environs around the iconic opera house are – well what is the word? – astonishing, spectacular, awe inspiring, colourful, noisy. Maybe they’re all the above. The combination of the setting of the harbour, the mid-summer temperatures, the way they do it, really does leave the rest of the world behind.
We then flew north to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Noosa is to Sydney what Cap d’Antibes is to Paris. But there’s nothing BCBG about Noosa. It’s unmistakably Australia: chilled, flip-flop wearing, linen shirts, bathers and lots of factor 50. But the place is full of great restaurants (Ricky’s River Bar and Restaurant is excellent), cafes and designer shops. Whoever described Australia as the lifestyle superpower of the world nailed it. It is.
On our return, we broke the journey in Istanbul. I first visited the city as a backpacker in my gap year in the 1970s, and although it is unrecognisable from when I first came the insane busyness of the Bosphorus hasn’t changed. In the 1970s I seem to remember being in a rather down-at-heel hostel. This time it was the other extreme and I stayed at the Peninsula hotel, which opened a couple of years ago.
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It is on the site of what used to be the cruise line terminal in the 1930s. And the waterfront buildings have kept with that 30s vibe. It has been meticulously restored with traditional touches of Art Deco, but with a Turkish twist in the culture and traditional craftsmanship. Our room looked across the Bosphorus to the Hagia Sophia mosque. Indeed, on a tripod stand were wonderful brass and silver binoculars that afforded a much closer look to the Asian side of the water.
Honestly, the combination of a long flight to Istanbul and the beauty of the room and the view from it, it was as much as I could do to go out and explore, and so many of the most famous landmarks are just a short walk away. The Karakoy district of the city where the hotel is to be found is full of wonderful shops and next door to the imposing museum of modern art. And just across the bridge where hundreds of fishermen dangle their lines into the swirling waters below is the Egyptian spice market. So European and yet so Asian.
Now this is what I call Turkey and all the trimmings.
How to do it
Jon Sopel travelled as a guest of Turkish Airlines which flies daily from UK airports to Sydney, via Istanbul. Return flights start from £804 in Economy, and £2,962 in Business Class.
Jon also stayed at The Peninsula Istanbul in Turkey.
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