Istanbul - Days 111-113

Friday night actually turned out to be not so bad compared to Saturday night in terms of sleep. Sure the bass is thumping and drunk people are outside yelling but eventually you get desensitized. Saturday night however, a group of 7 couchsurfers arrived from Ukraine at around 1am, and then took their sweet time getting settled and spreading out their sleeping bags. Then at 7am, my host Murat returns from the bar downstairs with the rest of the bar staff to eat breakfast and talk and SMOKE. I almost couldn't comprehend what was happening. But despite that total lack of consideration my host isn't bad, but I do think he has a mild case of ADHD - he is all over the place.

During the weekend, I visited Dolmabahce Palace, which is where the sultans used to live and also where Ataturk died. The place itself was amazing and ornate and located right on the water with a perfect view of the Asia side of Istanbul. However, the entire visit was one of the poorest organized affairs ever. You could only see the interiors of the building on guided tours and they basically breeze through everything and give facts that could have entirely fit on a trifold pamphlet. And of course, no pictures :)

Then today I took the ferry out to The Princes Islands. They're a set of seven islands, but I think only four are inhabited by people and accessible by boat. The ferry ride was about an hour but you feel as if you've escaped to a different time period. The islands have minimal auto traffic and most of the people get around by bike, scooter, walking, and also horse-drawn carriages. Although I'm sure the last one is only for tourists. I set off on what I thought was a short little walk to the monastery on top of the hill, but it turned out to be a two hour hike through the woods and I was impossibly lost. But it was really nice getting away from the hustle and bustle of Istanbul for a while.

Tonight I will take a 20 hour train ride to Bucharest, Romania. Unfortunately the section of the rail from Istanbul to the Bulgarian border is under repair so I will bus it and then switch to the sleeper train. Excited to go back to the Balkans!

Istanbul - Days 109-110

The thing about Couchsurfing is you're constantly making and giving first impressions - like a perpetual first date, so you're always on your best behavior. The degree of trust is established within those first 24 hours...and sometimes far far less. My first couchsurfing experience was in Paris seven years ago where the host presented me with a key and left for a 3 day international conference. I couldn't believe that people still trusted each other to that degree. Of course that's an extreme example. Most of the time I am given a key but the host is typically around during the evenings. I never ask but just sit back and wait for them to offer. Sometimes the host is more cautious and ask you to work around their schedule, which is perfectly understandable. I try to do this anyway to establish some good will :)

That's what I did here in Istanbul for the first couple of days, but then apparently proved to be trustworthy enough to be left alone in the apartment (with its collection of DVDs). I took full advantage of this and spent the better part of the day cooking meals and watching movies. There is always a little nagging voice in my head that says, "You should go out and see the city!" but sometimes you just need an off day.

Today is Friday and my host gets his young daugher for the weekend so I was scrambling for a last minute couch once again, but CS came through and I am now staying at the Indian Culture Center and the Hare Karishna Temple in the center of the city. You really couldn't ask for a more convenient location - it's right on the huge pedestrian street that I mentioned in my last post. I moved my stuff over here today and walked around a bit with my host and went to happy hour at a couple of local bars. As a non-drinker, happy hours are generally a little less happy for me than other people, but it's always interesting to experience the local culture, especially in this case. He really likes the rock and roll dive bars - the dark, grungy, and smoky type. I was the only female amongst nine guys in the first bar and half of us had pony tails...there's something awfully wrong with that.

Oddly enough the culture center/temple is located on a bar street and sandwiched between two bars with live music. This being Friday evening, I can basically bet on not getting much restful sleep tonight.

Plovdiv/Istanbul - Days 105-108

Sunday was my last day in Plovdiv and Zarko had the day off so we walked around town together and he showed me a couple of places which he thought was interesting...me not so much, but I appreciate the thought regardless. I guess for some reason he is really impressed by fountains and athletic fields, so we actually took a 30 minute bus ride out to the "Rowing Channel" and the surrounding athletic complex. The rowing channel itself was pretty cool I must say. It's a 2.3 km long Olympic "pool" that attracts a lot of joggers and such when it's not being used for competition.

The best thing about staying with Zarko is our daily cooking sessions. On my last night we made the typical Bulgarian Shopska salad with tomato, cucumber, pepper, parsley, and healthy pile of Bulgarian cheese on top. The main course was a special sausage from his hometown of Chirpan. I have 100% intention of recreating these amazing dishes when I get home, but hunting down some of the ingredients should be interesting. 

Monday was uneventful; transit day. 11am bus from Plovidiv and arrived in Istanbul a little bit after 5pm. I didn't do my research very well and just assumed I don't need a visa for Turkey, so I was completely caught off guard when the border agent said in a menacing tone "No visa!" Turns out I could purchase one on arrival for $20. Crisis averted. My host in Istanbul is Kenn, a construction engineer who has lived in the city for almost 20 years. My initial host canceled at the last minute due to a family emergency and I ended up sending out emergency CS requests the night before and Kenn kindly agreed to let me crash at his apartment. By the way, I suddenly realized this morning that he looks like a young Turkish version of Dustin Hoffman.

Istanbul is overwhelming and huge in comparison to the past few places I've visited. Just its public transit system consists of metro, bus, metrobus, suburban train, ferry, seabus, etc... My "commute" from Kenn's apartment to the city center by suburban train is about 30 minutes and that even bypasses all the surface traffic. By bus it'd probably be an hour or more. Yesterday, my first day in Istanbaul, I visited the Blue Mosque (known by locals as Sultanahmed Mosque), the Hagia Sophia, the Grand Bazaar and everything in between that links those places. Tons of walking. For some reason I had really high hopes for Istanbul and it doesn't disappoint but I'm having trouble accepting the hoards of tourist groups - and I AM a tourist. I can't imagine how the locals feel. But to be fair, the residential areas are less suffocating.

Walking around in Istanbul, the first obvious character is the numerous minarets dotting the city skyline. The mass majority of the population are Muslim and there are hundreds of not thousands of mosques in the city. The most famous of these are the two that I visited yesterday, and they're right next to each other. The Blue Mosque is still a functioning mosque and has free entry. Tourists line up to enter and there is an attendant who hands out plastic bags to everyone for their shoes - it breaks my ecological heart. The interior of the mosque is covered with blue colored iznik tiles, hence its name. Next door is the Hagia Sophia and that was converted to a museum I think as early as 1935. $15 entry fee but totally worth it. I was literally slack-jawed when I walked into the place. Hagia Sophia is unique because it houses both Christian and Muslim religious symbols and artifacts because it served as both throughout history. It was originally an orthodox basilica until the Ottoman Empire when it was converted into a mosque.

After those two I was a bit mosqued out and decided to grab some lunch in the Grand Bazaar area. An over friendly carpet salesman chatted me up and I ended up talking with him in his carpet shop for almost 2 hours. And HE looks like a young Turkish version of Stallone. It's not just me; his colleagues even call him Stallone. He showed me some gorgeous carpets and kilims and then showed me the horrendous price tags to go along with them. I knew they were expensive, but not $6000 expensive. Anyone out there interested in purchasing an authentic, handwoven Turkish carpet? If so, place your orders now :) I'm sure they all say this. but Hasan (Turkish Stallone) promised to sell to me at cost price and send door to door via DHL for free. I'm not under the illusion that it's free, but it's still cheaper than purchasing one in the US. He travels there for work frequently and says there's about a 500% mark up in the US. Who knows.

Today I'm exploring a different part of the city center - close to Taksim Square. It's a huge pedestrian street, and I discovered the section that sells musical instruments, so I was able to get a quick guitar fix. Right now I'm tying this on a MacBook Pro in an electronics store since I didn't have time to finish up last night. Off I go before the store attendants kick me out.