Day 1

Today is Thursday and since yesterday was only a partial day, I call today my first day in Istanbul. However, I was pretty tired and jet lagged so I didn’t really leave my flat until early afternoon. A fairly unproductive but enjoyable day. I live less than a five minute walk from probably the busiest pedestrian area in Istanbul and probably even all of Turkey, Istiklal street. It connects one area called Tünel to another area called Taksim. As mentioned before, this street, in addition to its cross and side streets has all the entertainment one needs. And the people watching is sensational. I’ve seen people from most countries I can imagine and/or recognize. I popped in and out of some shops and tried to unlock and register my US mobile phone. No luck with that, as you have to register your phone and then wait a few days to a week, blah, blah blah. Amazingly, people don’t speak that much English around here. I even had an entertaining time ordering a stuffed baked potato (a jacket potato for the Brits or a kumpir for the Turks) using lots of hand gestures. Also, the Turkish people don’t really like traveler’s cheques for some reason. Apparently banks will cash them but not the change centers. So I was sorta out of luck since I tried to exchange money after 5pm (or 17:00 :). Thank goodness for credit cards! So that was the “boring” part of the day.

*Note: I tried to limit usage of names just in case people do not like their names published, hence me only using letters*

Later in the evening, a friend of mine, K, sent me a message (on the computer since I don’t have a phone that works in Turkey :) and asked if I’d like to join them for food and drinks in the Taksim area. Of course I was down, getting to meet people and go out on the first night. I was very fortunate to meet K here in Istanbul. I met him through a friend in high school, Tony, who went to college with K. We decided to meet at the McDonald’s on Istiklal street. Now, now, it’s not like we ate there, only met outside since it was a central and obvious location to meet. K showed up with his sister, M, and we went to a restaurant to meet others. Here I got to meet another Turkish guy, E, and his Italian girlfriend, G, who met in Germany while doing their MBA’s. G’s Italian sister, J, was also there visiting from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Lastly, another fellow, D, who is half Pakistani and half Turkish arrived. I must say, I’m thoroughly impressed with Europeans and how many languages they can all speak. I think we decided that the table as a whole could speak about 8 or 9 different languages and understand maybe 10 or 11. Everyone was so nice and they all had interesting backgrounds. We all sort of nibbled at the food that was already sitting at the table and drank a few Turkish beers called Efes and a Turkish liqueur called Raki (made from anise). After dinner, we popped over to a music venue for a CD release concert at a place called the Jolly Joker Balans. I must say, for a Thursday, this place was sure buzzing! We had a couple more drinks, listened to the live music then decided to call it a night from the bar scene. We headed over to the other side of town and sat around at the apartment of one of the couples and just chatted sans blaring music. Wrapped up the chat and K offered me his couch so I wouldn’t have to venture back to my place unfamiliar with the town. Awfully nice of him! A great first night of exploring and meeting new friends, now I just have to remember all of them!