Gobble Gobble

This entry is coming at your from Istanbul, Turkey- the Asian side. Getting to Istanbul was a tough journey, but well worth it since Bryn joined me here. We spent the first 3 days on the European side of Istanbul; the touristy, overpriced, hustler side of town where everyone is trying to make a buck off of tourists. It is a necessary evil one must endure in order to see things like the Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque, Galata district and other places that embody the grandeur of Istanbul and the former Ottoman Empire. But the Asian side of Istanbul is much more appealing to me - and Bryn. This morning, we headed out to the hills just west of town and saw everyday life in Istanbul. We distracted a high school class by waving to them from the sidewalk, causing about a dozen heads to stick out windows and call out to us in English, waving to us. We had to slink backwards down the street like movie stars.

Blue Mosque

Few people spoke english, so we had fun figuring out what was going on and letting others know what we needed. It's intimidating at first, but becomes surprisingly easy. For food, just point at what you want and hold out some change. Watch how much other people pay and give them the same. For transportation, just get on a bus and say the name of the place you want to go in a questioning tone. People here are very willing to work with you on communication and come up with creative ways to do it. Much more adventurous and fun than dealing with all the slick, English speaking merchants on the European side.

We're in Turkey at an interesting time, too, because elections are coming up next week. Current Prime Minister, Recip Erdogan, is confidently appearing in posters all over town next to the number 2023 -  the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic and two elections away - as if to  say that 2011 isn't even a question. There are also tons of vans driving around with loudspeakers on top blasting either speeches from the politician whose picture is on the bus, or some techno song that he thinks his constituency would prefer.

Phoenix: The most famous band in Romania!

Getting to Turkey was complicated, though. I left Sunday morning at 1am, after seeing the most famous band in Romania play live in Barlad. I rode the train 6 hours south to Constantse, Romania, right on the Black Sea and near the Bulgarian border. I had an 8 hour wait in Constantse, leaving me time to see the Black Sea up and personal for the first time and meet up with one of Chelsea's Peace Corps friends for lunch. Then it was an 11 hour bus ride through Bulgaria to Istanbul. One interesting observation during the bus ride to Istanbul was that the bus driver passed out bottles of liquor to most of the passengers in Bulgaria in order to "legally" smuggle liquor into Turkey. Each passenger is allowed one bottle, so customs couldn't do anything when they came on the bus and found most of the passengers (even little old ladies) clutching bottles of tequila, rum and vodka that were obviously going to be returned to the bus driver once we entered Turkey. I guess they're just looking to stop the most flagrant of offenses. Sure enough, as we got into Istanbul, the bottles were collected and loaded into the bus driver's suitcase to be sold to someone for about half the price of normal liquor in Turkey.

 

Black Sea in Constantse

Road Sign in Constantse

I arrived in Istanbul at about 2am, just over 24 hours after I had left Barlad. I don't know why these train and bus schedules are so goofy. They are good at finding the absolute WORST time to leave and arrive at their destinations. I guess we were spared traffic, but I wouldn't have minded arriving in Istanbul at, say, 5 am and so avoid paying for a room that night.

On Sunday we're heading out of Istanbul along the Sea of Marmara down to southern Turkey. They we'll cut east and go out into the hinterlands of Anatolia. My goal is to see the Euphrates River.