After a 2 month hiatus and suffering severe travel withdrawal symptoms bordering on Delerium Tremens I finally boarded a plane once again, this time bound for an Easter weekend in Istanbul; which meant that unlike most normal working days, I had some motivation to wake up in the morning!
Having arranged to meet my friend Janith, who's office is based at the airport itself for breakfast was indeed a good plan after all, as being slightly out of the travel motions, something had to be forgotten. My little blue piece of Austrian ID that says I can legally live here. Which, under normal circumstances was not a problem to be forgotten as I have always managed to leave the Schengen inside 3 months and had stamps.
Except in my new passport, which would only receive its inagural visa upon arrival in Istanbul. Bugger.
But Janith had an idea; that we go with his car to collect it, and he managed to get me back with more than enough time to spare...so what if breakfast ended up being peanut butter cups? And thanks to Janith the superstar, no problems whatsoever at immigration.
On the flight itself, was sat next to a German first-timer to Turkey, and as luck had it for both of us, a local man on his way home from a business trip in Vienna. He gave us each a few tips before we were on our merry way, at which point I realised how much it sucks to be Canadian and visiting Turkey - not sure what we did to piss them off, but our visas are far and away the most expensive of the lot; a painful 45 euro v. about 10-15 for most other countries. As it is a multiple entry for 90 days, i ought to return again to get my money's worth. grrr.
However, I'd have to say, in the end, well worth it. Got my transport to the Bahaus guesthouse in Sultanahmet, which, yes, most of the tourists stay in, but also most of the backpackers and for the first visit to this city it was v. convenient to be based within short walking distance to most attractions. Not to mention this place organised activities, such as taking us out to nightclubs, and being on my own meant that upped the ante on that for me. Thankfully the number of cool people i met there compensated for the fact I'd been placed in the ghetto bunker room in the basement - and granted the rooms up on the other floors are nicer, there were still nicer rooms than the makeshift one i'd landed in....something to take notes should you wind up going there to stay sometime as well.
Friday afternoon I kicked around getting my bearings, and getting out of the sense of complacency I have here in Vienna with regards to people. Meaning, that here...most often times one is left alone. However, as I quickly found out even the slightest bit of eye contact can get you some new (cough) friends, whether you want them or not.... Again, note to self: remember to learn those few phrases in obscure language. Irish, perhaps? Or can anyone help me out with the native tongue of the Federated States of Micronesia? Although it's nice to have locals more friendly than here (ok, thats not hard..), there is a fine line to walk with this as a solo female...or as is the case in Istanbul, a solo male for different reasons - the scam where your new 'friend' takes you to a bar, and when you get there, there are a bunch of girls, etc. and after a drink - you're charged an outrageous amount of money.
Thankfully the hostel bar offered some refuge from this, and upon my return met my bunkmate for the night, Jeff...a displaced New Yorker living in Switzerland who was also travelling on his own and keen to wander around in search of some food and off we went. We first checked out something that someone at the hostel had recommended, but determined it to be a bit too touristy and took off in search of something else. After some sweet looking Baklava had seduced us into the shop, tried to get recommendations from the shop clerks, but only ended up with some vague recommendations and laughs over language barriers.
Ultimately we'd settled upon a v. small cafe on a side street with a very entertaining waiter, who got us into his discussions with the 2 English ladies sat across from us about age guessing and restaurant renovations - constantly interrupted of course as he ran out to the street to try and bring in new customers. Chasing after them, yelling in Spanish or just random phrases such as 'hey, man in hat!' and offering to carry their water bottles. The food was satisfying, and the company great so I was pleased with my first Istanbul dinner at the Lola Cafe.
And despite our efforts to get back in time for the belly dancing, we missed it..but no problem, as the crowd was still going strong and I met Crystal, Heather and Rachel - some more displaced Americans studying in Dubai. They'd all got into a game of backgammon, but my efforts were focused on the large dreamy looking shisha that thankfully no one took interest in, as, as Geralyn and I have determined we are unable to share. I ordered a glass of Raki to go with it and had a good chill night, while some Australian girls tried to warn me of the effects and to drink water (fwaaawww, i've done this before), and yet ANOTHER displaced American surfaced - Dave from Minnesota, living in Oxford. My impression of the cozy hostel bar thus far was a winner and a vast improvement over the space cadet telly watchers at my last hostel in Panama City.
Saturday. Shopping day. Thankfully the weather had improved greatly and after some brekkie headed off across the Bosphorus with Jeff, Crystal, Heather, Rachel and PJ, another English roommate in the ghetto bunker. the aforementoined first four alighted at one stop to check their bearings and got left behind, so PJ and I continued on to Taksim, with a few directions.
And I reckon there are some good deals to be found if one is really willing to search, but I wasn't entirely in the mood off the start. Though I did manage to get some things not available in Vienna, surely, and then after yet more weakness for the glistening baklava squares I grabbed a tram back over the Galata Bridge and headed for the Grand Bazaar, where I should have first purchased a pen and paper to write down all my mistaken nationalities - Irish, Australian, New Zealand, English, Spanish, Italian, some random Brazilian dudes assuming I spoke their Native Portuguese, and yes, even a few guesses that I was local. Although most randomly those 3 (rather white..) American lasses were asked if they were from Uganda...nice.
Not quite as nice as the vendor who's first line to me was 'are you pregnant?'. OK. Seriously. I know I hit the Baklava and Turkish delights a bit...well, ok, A LOT, but I'm sure it wasn't THAT bad. pfffft.
I had only made a few purchases there though (the aforementoined comment most certainly did not put my off my baklava and turkish delights, ahem..), a very pretty silk scarf so I could finally go inside some mosques, shisha equipment and a pair of silver earrings..which I had found early on in my time, when I was still doing my price analysis...and had failed to mark something to find my bearings for them after. Well, escalation of committment kicked in, and powered by the sugar rush of my favourite Rose 'lokum', i searched for the better part of an hour for this stand.
And as is oft the case in life, once you stop searching so desparately for something..you find it. the stall was quite close to the entrance and I managed to make the purchase after all.
On Saturday nights at Bahaus, they do something I think quite nice - they organize a night out in Taksim at various nightclubs. So not only do they pay for taxis to take the guests into town, they also organize that no entrance fees are paid. If that weren't good enough, its an excellent way for those on their own to be able to head out with a group and not be made to feel awkward for going on their own. Good call that weekend, as there were a great number of us in this boat (although myself the only girl on her own, what else is new...c'mon ladies!!).
And...if the pregnancy comment thing weren't bad enough, Dave, the displaced Minnesotan, thought it funny to inform me that owing to having him rather early in life, his mother is only one year older than self. v. nice! although it became a real laugh that I was 'mum', and we were off..
The night was fantastic, a real tonic, letting my hair down, and all those other cliches. Off the start we were about 20, and I met some Australians out to 'smash it up', as well as Johannes from Germany, who was kind enough to say no, I do not speak like a child. We started off at some rock club with a live band which wasn't really to the taste of most of us, and I was made to scull my beer before a rather efficient moving on to a dance club..and that was more like it. Unfortunately we lost some of our crew along the way, but it was a top night nonetheless. At some time, my poor son with no money, took his 7 lira allowance from me and decided it would go muuuuuch further in a shop than in the club and took off. Not sure what happened after this, he seemed to think we were all gone, tried to get a taxi..with no money...the driver at first told him, no problem, drove him back to the hostel, and then of course demanded the money. But all poor DAve had was a credit card, which the guy didn't take. caused a bit of panic for himself the next day when it was temporarily missing, but as the card resurfaced, it seemes Dave got himself a free ride! I of course, was scolded for losing my 'son'. haha.
Myself, Jeff and Becs, a member of the mad Aussie group called it a night at a reasonable hour (4-ish) and only after we'd hailed the cab and were heading back at warp speed to Sultanahmet did we realise we left all the viable food options behind and we were starving...
and from this point i recall leaving the taxi on the street between Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque..passing a cafe with a member of the staff cleaning it, and we just outrageously asked, any way we can get soemthing to eat? Well. You know you have left Vienna when....they happily opened the kitchen for us, cooked us food to order, and tended to our every need while Becs and I, high heel victims, rested our feet, and Jeff being the kind soul he was, alternated piggybacking us back to the hostel to the sounds of the morning prayer call from the Blue Mosque.....
Oddly enough, I'd woken in time for breakfast and able to eat it. V. bizarre. but good; today was meant to be the sightseeing day, and sightsee I did...Blue Mosque (with my snazzy new scarf!), taking Jeff's photo with the local cop on his bike, Aya Sofia, Basilica Cistern, and after grabbing some great Pide with the Aussies, finished it off with Topkapi Palace, which was my favourite with its summer house all done in blue Ottoman tiles. Pity the weather was overcast during my visit, but still managed to get some great photos and views of the Bosphorus nonetheless. I ran into the girls after who gave me pomogranite juice, and then headed off to rest my poor trashed self in the Turkish baths...I chose the easy option of Cemberlitas, which was also a historical building so figured I should just go to check it out anyway. After all that walking, heaven - even if the attendant's method of letting you know you're up on the scrub line is throwing water at you!
Sunday night then, was going to be the 'chill' night. The aussies had invited me to dinner, and that sounded great. Before meeting them however, I'd gotten into a card game with Jeff and a bunch of others and next thing i know i'd doubled our group with randoms from the hostel such as Sondre, an intrepid young norwegian lad and Johannes, and we were 10 strong. Of course, this put the idea into our heads, that this will be a hefty sale for the lucky restaraunt of our choosing, and negotiated them down to 25% off the bill, and free tea and coffee. I do agree with Andy, one of the Aussies, we could have got them down further, but everyone else was ready to settle at 15!! Oh well, apart from the (ahem) moldy bread, my food was fine and the company fantastic. Though I should also have known...with this company this would be no quiet night. The debate continued on whether to go into Taksim or not, and in the end we plumped for the option of drinks in the hostel with everyone's smuggled in collections.
Of course Taksim would come after, except none of us could be fussed with a taxi really, and we hit the bars around the corner, first inundating a lone Austrian woman's table - who gave the expected response later when asked how she felt about 8 guys and one girl commandeering her table...a very forced grimace, but after nearly 3 years here I could immediately see how the gregarious friendly nature of Jeff and the Australians is polar opposite to here...oh yeah, what was that about leaving again??? Yar. Although in the end, as one of the lads was also native from this country, they seemed quite content..very content in fact...to sit and chat with one another...
anyway, Andy and i were off on another bid to get the best price for some drinks which lead us over the road to another random pub, at which point i thought it would be fun to take the piss a bit when the (cough) friendly barman asked my name, and told him it was 'Freebeer'. I guess he did find it amusing after all, and poured me the drink of my namesake! Unfortunatley I was not too far into that drink when the bar was shut down by police - but the barman in his urgent rush to get us out, told me to take the entire thing.
So I did. and popped back over the road with the lads, and thought it would be fun to try the same trick there..only this time i had a bonus; i had my own glass! Some of the others filtered off one by one, however, the Austrian remained chatting with his newfound country woman (guess it wasn't so bad having teh table invaded after all, heeeeugh), while Sondre and I got hold of some stuffed animals, started drunkenly making fun of them, and i nearly died laughing when he christened 'the love whale'.
and never did I think, that, I would end up at a bar in instanbul, doing both traditional Norwegian and Turkish dance in the same night. but then again I didn't think I'd end up drinking for free either, to the point that Sondre and I were pouring from the tap ourselves and had even commandeered the bar computer and playing the music of our choice. We'd also scammed a free shisha to take back out to the patio for sunrise, where we were joined by some of the random Istanbul cats. Got back to the hostel in time to see Jeff off on his 8.30 am airport shuttle...
Quiet night indeed.
Unfortunately, this one took a bit more of a toll and I was deffo out of sorts. My planned ferry trip to the Asian side was, well, looking about as likely as my mother's chances on the national lotto. I tried..I slept for 3 hours, headed down to the Bosphorus, but the mere sight of an incoming ship rocking and reeling, along with wafting seafood and kebap smells, had my stomach feeling like there were evil spirits inside (well, there were....), and being alread prone to seasickness...this idea had just one status: Abandon ship!!! before i'd even boarded it...
I tried to find the spice market, but feeling much worse for the wear, called defeat and headed back to the hostel for another kip - but lying down was just as bad as being up, so after a run in with my probably green faced ill self, Johannes suggesting going up to the bar and terrace, and as I sat up there in the late day sun poking out from behind the minarets of the blue mosque, i started to recover..enough to even discuss dinner and our plan was set.
I decided to hit up the baths one more time for full cleansing of the evil hangover, and owing to said hangover decided once again to be lazy and head for the easy Cemberlitas. I got the same attendant, who in a seemingly better mood did not throw water on me this time..but she did remember me, and said when i am back in Istanbul I should go for her. will keep that in mind ;-)
Filled up my sugar quota with some more Turkish delights, stopped off at the shop to bring some back for various Vienna folk and met Johannes for dinner...who then in turn found 2 American girls, Jenna and Carolyn to join us and we headed down to the bridge on the bosphorus for a fish dinner...forgetting my repercussions from the sight of the boats there earlier..as all the restaraunts looked the same, we chose on the basis of decor (default!), and got a seat on the terrace overlooking the water....admittedly these places are somewaht touristic, but I really did want some seafood in a coastal city..ie, what i can't get here..and the prices not too outrageous, and the view...well, that was just it..right by the water. I shuddered at the thought of returning to 3 degrees, snowstorms and the office.
We had a great dinner actually, and I was pleased with spending my last night that way - even if it meant I was only going to get 4 hours of sleep or less...
All in all, worth it. The hostel...as we all said, average hostel, but excellent people. For me it was the perfect break; I did most of the sightseeing on my own, which I prefer, but had excellent company with whom to chill out afterwards, to eat with and just let loose, no drama, fun partying. Also a breath of fresh air to meet some people with similar ideas on life, and about breaking the mold. No one prodded me with inappropraite personal questions.
Yeah, I remembered this weekend that on the road is where a lot of these peeps can be found.
Final Vote: Istanbul, and Bahaus hostel - 2 thumbs up all the way!!!!
