Welcome to hell

My gran used to call it the 'big bad fire' and I guess we all have our interpretations of hell and whether it exists or not. The devil too has had his (her?) moments, from Lucifer to Nick to according to the excellent Prefab Sprout singing that he 'has all the best tunes' to portrayals in literature and cinema.

Overall though, it probably ranks low on our 'things to do' list, and only slightly below (insert own pettily disliked town here) as a holiday destination. On the plus side my weather app has the temperatures as pretty high but I've read Dante's review of the place and I don't think it's for me.

The Turkish football side Galatasaray on the other hand do a natty line in 'tifos' (football fan displays, usually, but not exclusively, pre kick-off). When done right, in Glasgow (he said neutrally) or Barcelona, in Dortmund or in many other cities, they can look incredible. The Istanbul folk win the award this time around, and their banners proclaim 'welcome to hell'. It's probably a lovely place to visit and the temperatures this time of year are better than my frosty, chilly city so I'll take their version of hell over that of Dante, Milton, Rimbaud or even Virgil, while Sartre, the jolly japester offered that 'hell was other people.' Enough of that existentialism though, and back to the European end of Istanbul. The Turks even offer a welcome, which is nice. The nice part of hell - there's a thought.