derek

Istanbul is not what I expected. The city is ultra-modern. I think it has more Starbucks than all of North Carolina. There’s countless McDonalds, Burger Kıngs and other American companies. Frankly, I don’t care for the city too much. Its absolutely huge, chaotic and inconvenient. Getting anywhere requires at least an hour — more if it’s a heavy-traffıc time. Anyways, here’s some things I’ve been doing and seeing in the city:

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The Spice Bazaar (otherwise known as the “Egyptian Bazaar”). If I remember correctly, it’s around 500 years old. Huge, filled with tons of shops selling candy, spices, clothes and other things.

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Typical candy shop.

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The Blue Mosque — one of the central mosques ın the city.

Istanbul is so modern, ıt’s easy to forget that you’re ın a Muslım country. The main reminder comes at prayer time, when all the city’s mosques’ loudspeakers play the call to prayer. Oddly enoughi the call to prayer is in Arabic — a language the Turks don’t speak.

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The Hagia Sofia Mosque. It was built not long after Jesus’ death and was, for some time, the biggest church in all of Christendom. It remained a Christian church until the Ottomans seized Constaninople (as Istanbul was then named) and turned it into a mosque around 500 years ago. It remained one until the 1900’s when it was turned into a museum.

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Inside.

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The underground cicstern. I forgot when it was built — sometime ın the Byzantine Empire I think. It was built to hold water for use in the city. The cicstern also holds statues of two Medusa heads — one upside-down, the other laying on its side. Historians have no idea where they are from or how they got there.

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Medusa.

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My hosts in Istanbul — Aslı from Turkey and Adam from Australia.

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Two more days in the city and then I fly to Poland. Unfortunately, plans changed and I will be skipping the ferry to Ukraine. That’s life.

Somebody stole my money in Istanbul. I’ve been here for a few hours.

While walking around for a few hours, several people, noticing my backpack and white skin, stopped me to say hello in English. All very friendly.

The third one was trouble. He asked me if I needed help with anything. Why, I did! I bought a new SIM card for the city, but for some reason it wasn’t working in my phone — I couldn’t make any calls. He took me to a cell phone shop, but they said it was the wrong company and we’d have to go somewhere else.

He asked me if I’d have a beer with him, adding, “this is Taksim — everyone here is very nice!”

Not having anything to do for a few hours, I agreed to have a beer with “Aram.” He took me to a bar on a side street, introducing himself by saying he works in the Taksim area, “in one office” — “a very big company.”

As he went inside the bar, we passed by two girls who both stared us down. A couple minutes after sitting down, they came and asked to join us, both speaking English. They immediately launched into really contrived smalltalk.

At this point, I knew I was in a bad situation, but I wasn’t sure exactly what it was yet. Prostitutes? Was “Aram” and the table next to us with around five guys going to mug me and steal my dirty clothes and shampoo (what else did they expect to find in my backpack)?

The girl next to me asked, “can I have a drink?” I agreed, and the waiter, already prepared, immediately brought over two champagne bottles. The girls told me they worked there, in the bar. I quickly finished my beer and said I had to go. The waiter brought over the check and extended his hand. After it was apparent that nobody else would take it, I did. The check was for around 400 USD.

One of the guys from the next table immediately walked over, prepared to argue, and the girls went back to their original table. I told him I didn’t have the money to pay.

Why? You must pay!

I don’t have the money.

The girls ordered the drinks! You will pay!

This is a mistake. I didn’t tell them they could order that.

Etc. Etc. The group of guys stared menaciningly while the leader made me empty my pockets, asking where I keep my credit card.

Thank God I had very little money — and no credit card — in my pocket. Eventually he agreed that I would pay about 40 USD, and “my friend” — who he pretended not to know — would pay for the rest on his credit card. Right.

I walked out of there as quickly as I could.

Anyways. The trip wasn’t bad. Istanbul seems nice so far. I’ll put photos and final impressions from Georgia up later. I’ll also never follow a friendly stranger again.