Corrections and additions to Istanbul

Hello friends and loved ones. Bradley and Bethany read through the blog and were very upset (not really...) about the amount of information that went on in Istanbul that wasn't mentioned. I told them that I already write a ton, but they think that these things should be added. So:

We will start with the final day in Istanbul. We met up with Beth's friend Ahmet in Taksim square which is a totally different and new part of the city. Much more like what you'd see in the rest of Europe. Far more modern. There is a long road full of boutique eateries and cafe's, trendy stores and brand names that are expensive, some really cool random shops and stores that carry some traditional/trendy/cultural/bohemian stuff, and really just a nice mix. It's like whyte ave (for those of you who get the reference) times about three. Quite big and even better, and it's in Turkey, which gives it a fun vibe too. There are a few vendors on the streets calling out at you, but not many, ten times less that in the old kingdom side. Which brings me to my next point. There are two sides to Istanbul. Perhaps more like 6, but we only saw two. The one where we spent most of our time is the old side. It has the big mosques, the Iso-Sophia, and the grand bazaar. In the old part it is very religious. This is why some of the men would tsk tsk at Beth and I, should be be wearing anything but a full on Birka. Ridiculous, but we thought that this was just Istanbul and how it was...until we crossed the river and found Taksim. Ha ha, boy were we wrong. People we wearing whatever they liked, there were bars and clubs and people all over and no one tsked at us at all. So, our time in Taksim was fun and way different from the rest of our days in Istanbul.

Ahmet turned out to be a really nice guy. He has a few bad habits; like he had a cigarette in his mouth every minute, and he had stayed up until 5 that morning partying, met us at 10, and then had two drinks and three shots in the time we were together. I just couldn't help but laught as he ran to catch his shuttle so he could "study" a bit before he went to party again. But, overall, he was not a creeper. In fact, on the new side of the city, I think there were far fewer creepers in general. I guess Ahmet is in Material Engineering, which actually sounded like a really cool job. But we couldn't figure out what the equivalent is back at home...does anyone know what we call our Material engineers?

One thing that Ahmet showed us, after we'd spent some time in the shops, was a little area just off the docks where there were some shops and things. The area was nice but the big piece of information that I need to tell you is about Baked potatoes. They have all kinds of vendors selling baked potatoes, and they are nothing like at home. Yes, they take a potato and bake it, however, they don't throw on Sour cream, green onion, chives, broccoli, or cheddar. No no my friends, instead, the Turkish people prefer toppings like pickles, olives, olive paste, cabbage (boiled), cabbage juice mixed with mayo, yogurt and mint, mushrooms, corn, peas, and some pea/carrot/yogurt salad, hot dogs in red sauce, hot sauce, cheese and butter, and as a topping on top of all of that (or whatever combintation they wished), the would put ketchup and mayonaise. Because: why not?! Gross. So, we all tried to pick the least offensive toppings that we could and actually came out with a pretty good product. Ahmet did put on most everything, but we three left without ketchup and mayo...did we miss out? We'll never know.

Another thing that Ahmet did for us was bring us to Gelato place. Very much appreciated because we always want ice cream, but here in Turkey, the Ice cream is so very weird! Apparently it's made of Milk as a base, but you go ahead and tell me what kind of milk product (with the exception of butter and cheese) can you put on a stick and swing around and do tricks with in a big clump? It's the consistancy of bread dough that's fairly watered down, and the flavour has a lot to be desired. Apparently every one here likes it, however, When you can take the whole thing out of the bucket and hit someone on the head with it, it worries me. We did try it once and once we realized how strange it was, we left it alone. The gelato was really nice!

We spent the last night in Istanbul back up on the Rooftop bar at our hostel. It's a really nice p0lace to chill, and we never order anything because we're so araid of getting screwed over at the end. We finally tracked down Dagistan and paid for our accomodation, which was a big church of money, but it was reasonable. Plus, it IS the best hostel we've been to in a long time. Or ever.

The next morning we woke up really really early, and Doug woke up to make us a final breakfast. We grabbed the shuttle and went to the airport. The airport here was so funny. You had to put all of your luggage through a x=ray scanner before you could even get into the airport. Then, once you were through you go to your check in. Once you've checked in, there is a passport officer who instpects the passport, you find your gate, and go through security the second time. Finally you get to board. Also, there are periodic boarding pass checks as you go through lines...ridiculous, but safe. And for us, with all the trouble we have in airports, it was actually the smoothest ride so far. I think it's because they weren't checking for liquids at all, there were no weight restrictions, and no one care about Bradleys tri-pod because we checked our bags. Also, once on the plane, for the 1 hr ride (very short, so this is awesome), our airline (which is Olympic, and extremely roomy to boot) fed us a meal! It wasn't that early and the ride was only and hour and they fed us...so we want to fly with them again! Free food is so appreciated!

Now the rest is going to be catching up from other stories.


1. Turkish bath.

I totally forgot to mention that while at the Turkish bath, we were all put in the mens room so that they could keep us together as a group. at first, while we were on the marble slab, the room was empty and we thought nothing of it, and then about half was through our relaxing time, before we were called out by Helga for our scrub down, a whole team of Ukrainian football (soccer) players came barging in. It was a little akward after that, and then when Bethany and I had already got our cleaning and we were just relaxing back in the room, we were watching as all of these Ukrainians were getting their own scrub down. Luckily they all had towels on, however, there was a time at the end when they did the towel change and we were forced to look away...but we weren't paying a ton of attention anyway, because we were busy with out water fight.


2. Driving

The driving here is aweful. Carts, animals, scooters, motorbikes, taxi's cars, utility trucks, semi's and buses all share the tiny streets. Often you just get honked at if you're in the way, however, there have been many a time when I've felt that people must die here all the time. Little machines and veering around big ones, and people honking everywhere, and pedestrians who don't have the right of way just waltze across the street wherever they find a gap. It's a little bit of a game at times, and one that I am not very comfortable playing, but we do anyway, so I guess I'll chalk it up to experiences!


3. Pick up line/sales pitch

So, I know that I told you a few of the different comments that we got in the street, but Bethany reminded me of a really funny one. Here it is:

"I'm single, want a T-shirt?"

just thought I'd throw that in.




4. Creepers on the park bench.

So, this one day, We had just bought our bread for lunch, and we sat down on a park bench to enjoy it and look back over some pictures, when these two men...very weird men, with glasses, high pants, and broken English came right up, sat on our bench, (we had two benches facing each other with Beth and I on one side and Bradley on the other) right on either side of poor Bradley and began to ask us things. Mostly things like where we were from, and what we take in school. I think one was a history prof at Istanbul University...but regardless, they just kept talking to us. I think they liked Bethany because at one point, they asked her if she was Japanese (which a whole bunch of people here seem to think for some reason), and when she replied that no she wasn't, the told her that she looked like Naiomi Campbell (who is a BLACK model) Please take a look at her picture from the link to FB and then the picture from the link to her...it's odd.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=509424254

Beth


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Campbell

Naiomi



At the end of our conversation they asked if we had facebook and if they could add us...to which we replied "no".

Very odd people those.



5. Service

So, These people all stand in front of their restaurants and try to get you in the place. They tell you all about how wonderul everything is. Really, Turkey has the wost service I've ever seen. They never come and check on you, and you have at ask for your bill ever time. I'm just saying. maybe if they tried a little harder at the service, they wouldn't have to pay a guy to attract business, but it would just come. Who knows, but we found it funny. And, consistent.


6. Leather man.

So, last Turkey story.

We were looking through some road side shops, and we came accross one with really really nice leather products. Obviously we know they're too expensive, but we take a look instead. I find some nice shoes, Bethany finds some killer saldals (that I actually still want), and the bags were awesome too. Everything was a ton of money, which we didn't have, but as we were looking, this guy started talking to us. First he mentioned "Oh people all come into my store and say "nice things nice things," but 100 people all come in, and no body shops", but that sad story soon moved to "you are from Canada. Do you hate Americans? It's ok to tell me. If someone asked me if I hated Greeks, I'd say YES!" And then the conversation moved to "Americans hire scientists to make new kinds of Bombs and guns that can kill the whole world. Very bad, very bad."

At this point, we decided that anyone who can move from the crushing economy to bombs and guns without anyone relplying to his comments (because we did not respond) must be a little off. So we left. But he sure was interesting!

That's Turkey part 2 or is it 3? I don't know. On to Greece!