I left Berlin around 10:30 to head to the airport. Just before my last switch over, two older adults were looking at the metro map – confused. I was able to help them decipher a route to their destination, and in doing this, I feel like I was about to be a little bit of a Berliner ;). I arrived at the airport just before midnight, and during check-in the receptionist asked me if I would like a window or aisle seat. I replied, whatever doesn’t charge me, she laughed and went on her business. I then had to check in my bag – which was over the 6kg limit but within the dimensions (I get a free bag check in on this flight)… just before it was sent away, I mentioned there was a laptop in it. She let me take my whole bag in hand luggage. When I boarded the plane around 2:30, I was surprised to have found myself in an entire row of seats by myself, in a relatively crowded plane. I think only one other row didn’t have 3 people in it. I guess I lucked out?
I got about 2 hours of sleep before landing in Istanbul. Stopped short of passport control was the visa check, where I had to purchase a tourist VISA. Brent (my brother), did tell me I would have to bring 20USD to the VISA check to purchase it. I didn’t do this, and when I came to the window – I noticed the sign “we do not accept credit cards, only cash, if you do not have the necessary funds, you will not be able to enter the country.” I have 0 currency of ANY kind on me. Utoh, again, luckily there was an ATM in the arrival area of the airport, I pulled out quite a lot of Turkish Lira, in case RBS shut my card off from not telling them I would be in Turkey! Got through passport and what not, and went through some automatic sliding doors only to see Brentski’s face looking back at me! I’m in Turkey, met up with Brent a gabillion miles around the world, how great!
We had to take about 1:30 hours of busses to get to his place. We chatted the whole time back, caught up and I learned a lot about Turkish customs and culture. On one of the bus switchovers, I purchased my first Turkish product – a smit, it looked like a pretzel, but really was some sort of bread (which I guess is what a pretzel is anyway haha). We ventured into a supermarket just across the street from his place to get some food for breakfast, it was interesting seeing all the different types of food were here. For one, the yogurt is in giant buckets rather than our little cups of it. Although it certainly does NOT taste as good, but oh well. When we arrived back at his place, I met his roommate, Mahir, who seemed like a good guy. We ended up taking a 4-hour nap, and then started out day.
Walking around the city was great, there is so much going on, after all this is the mega city of Istanbul, 15million+. We walked down random streets and just took the city in, our first stop was into a butcher, Brent was teaching me all the names for meat products. Everyone in Turkey (90%- Brent) will like the fact that you are American, because most of them want to learn English, they also think it is interesting and would like to just talk to you. So, we chatted with these butchers for a few minutes, next thing you know, they are inviting us to have “çay” which is tea. This is a fairly common custom in Turkey, being invited for tea, hospitality is one of Turkey’s strong points. Our next stop was at some random food place we stumbled upon after walking through the streets. Brent had quite a converse with the chef about what foods to order and what they serve. We ended up getting a piece of decently large bread, like a medium pizza, with cheese toasted on top, delicious. As well as a somewhat flat tortilla type deal with a little meat and other flavorings on top, with this, you put lettuce and tomato along with lemon juice. Equally delicious. I was able to slightly communicate with the waiter, telling him it was delicious and I really enjoyed the local cuisine. They genuinely appreciate any attempt at Turkish language, of which I am trying very often, with a handy-dandy Turkish phrase + language book in my back pocket. Along with my translator, Brent. We had such a good time in that little restaurant, talking to all the people that worked there, and just feeling the genuineness of everyone. I already love it here. We also had a few cups of tea, which are so much better than the tea back home, I do not know why… they are served in basically a double shot glass with some contours to it. It is extremely hot and you sip on it. All of this deliciousness came out to be about 8 TL, which equates to around $5.50, for both of us; completely stuffed and tea’d. Mmmmmmm…
We now waddled down the street… went into a couple other shops to just look around. Then we hopped on a bus that took us into the main district of Istanbul on the Asian side. This was a dense area of people, we went through the ends and outs of the streets until we came upon a fairly large tea area. It had an outside courtyard, a canopied yard and an inside area. Everyone was drinking tea, playing chess, backgammon, etc. After lingering around a bit we headed back into the heart of the city and shops. Walking down some old roads we came across a wall that was built roughly in the Ottoman empire, not bad, then we headed into a shop where I saw some dried mangos. I said in Turkish, I would like those, for 1 TL. She smiled and gave me some mangos. The next place we stopped at was at a little shoe shop, run by a man named Gohan, one of Brent’s friends. We conversed for a bit, me a little in Turkish, him a little in English. He offered us tea, we accepted and what really blew me away. Was that he left his shop to go get it! It was just Brent and I in his store, how crazy is that? We had tea, and another man who saw us in there and probably heard us conversing came in and joined. It was great, I feel like I am learning some basic phrases and words, as well as really getting into the culture. From here, we headed off to meet with some of Brent’s other friends. They were all very welcoming, and we conversed as well as celebrated one of their birthdays!
After we left here it was around 9:30 or 10 at night, Brent and I walked through Istanbul, made it to the coast and sat on some rocks philosophizing for next hour or so. It was good, both seeing some sights at night and talking until 12ish. Now we were looking for some activity to do, either backgammon in a café, darts or pool. Brent asked some teenagers and they gave us directions to a billiard hall. We followed the directions as best as we can, but decided to go into another café to ask directions, a man opened the door that we just came through and pointed literally directly across the street. We went into the hall, which was pretty decked out, with 4-pool tables, about 10 LCD screens, and other board games and stuff. We played pool for 2 hours, and Brent did defeat me 5-1. Although I might say, they were all very close and very well played games! The billiard hall owner came over as we were playing and chatted with us for a bit. People are very open in conversing and meeting people, as well as offering drinks etc, it is great. After we got done here, it was well into the night, we decided to go back and call it a night.
Turkish culture, my favorite so far, and it has only been a day.
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