I've been slacking on the posts... it's been a busy couple of days. The latest set of people that have been here about a week and leave within the next couple of days. Disposable friends? I love everyone I've met and most of them I have gotten contact information from - facebook or email. But after a week they just disappear. Who knows if I will see them again. Every person has been fantastic though. Everyone is so interesting.
Alisha - young San Fransiscan. Rather loud and bold. Speaks her mind. Really interesting and hilarious to drink with. She'll dance all night if you let her.
Paddy and Ione - really the first British people I've known. They are each from different sides of England. Paddy, from London, is calm and speaks slowly whereas Ione, who is from Cumbria, is outrageously funny and loud. I can hardly understand her sometimes because she speaks like a Scot. She'll drink to no end and she has the most entertaining stories. Today is her birthday, so we celebrated last night. At araf. again.
Alessandro - the Brazilian tattoo artist. Greatest accent ever. He's like 35, really short and really sweet. My favorite is when he speaks Portuguese to the kitty. He nicknamed her Macacina (little monkey). He has been here for about 11 days, so I've gotten to talk to him a lot. Really funny guy.
Zach and Ryan - American students and my age. It was nice hearing about traveling from someone more similar to me. Ryan was cocky, but so smart and could talk your ear off despite his supposed social ineptness. Zach was different, very passionate about what he was doing and sincerely interested in the people he was meeting.
Shima - not necessarily disposable, although she quit working at the hostel. She'll be around and I have her number, but I won't see her every day anymore. She's extremely smart and one of the most interesting people I've met.
Josh - quite the character....he left for Sharjah last week. Kind of odd, but extremely hilarious.
Sedat - one of those onion people that you don't understand until you peel back the layers. He is one of my participants for my research, so in talking to him I've learned a lot about him. At first he seems really intimidating and maybe scary, but he's really nice and really cares about the people staying at his hostel.
Julien - Talks a lot, but you cant help but lısten. coming back from Iran in a week or so.
Every time that someone leaves I get a sinking feeling that I am going to be all alone, but then I think of how easy it was the last time around to meet people. You'll hear about someone new soon. The lone travelers are the best because they are genuinely looking to meet people and experience traveling in this way.
This morning I went to eat with Alisha near the Bosphorus. She needed American coffee, so we went to this coffee house chain type place. After we walked over by the water and sat for awhile. It really is beautiful, even with the Asian side behind it. I am dying to go over there to see the view from the other side, with the more bustling European side in sight.
I went up in the Galata Tower again - fo free :) I'll explain in a minute. I thought it was quite a sight the first time, but the haze blocked much of the distance. In comparison to the second time, it was rather mediocre. The clear blue skies exposed the horizon of perfectly carved mountains, the distant Prince's islands, and every spiked minaret in exact and colorful detail. As it does to everyone, a sky high panorama leaves me in awe and this is probably the most anticipated sight that didn't disappoint. The skyline is not the only thing I'm falling in love with though. I do realize that my idea of Istanbul and life here is still a bit naive and romanticized, but it is more real than my outside perceptions, or misconceptions...before I arrived. I do have a better idea of reality. There is corruption and crime everywhere, but from talking to people here, I know more about the situations and living conditions of today in Turkey. I've seen parts of the city that are raw and condemned...and condemning, but I think they are beautiful. The city is beautiful because of these places with a past. A past that is rather unforgivable and morbid. They have scarred Istanbul and made it a city unlike any other in the world.
It's strange how my comfort with the city has changed. I remember one of the first days I was here, I walked not too far to look at an apartment. I remember thinking am I in a slum? The buildings look rundown, only men sit on stoops outside little shack-like fruit stands and tiny tea cafes, they all stare at you. The street in general looks neglected. I must be in a bad part of town. I was genuinely afraid. It was quite a shock for a first meandering. Well this was in the same neighborhood that I talked about earlier - Cihangir. Yeah, the one that I live in, that I raved about, that is so beautiful. I realize now that I had a completely misunderstood interpretation in my introduction to the micro level of Istanbul. After many times now of walking around this neighborhood, it has become ordinary. I think my interpretation was shaped by what I knew before, what I was used to, back home. Something completely different. Suburbia ain't no 300 year old, winding, Ottoman and Levantine streets. It's weird that something or some place that stirred so much uneasiness and fear in me now possesses such happiness. I really just absolutely love walking around these streets. Imagining where I am in the mess of the city as a whole, where I would look to find myself on the macro scale, from atop the galata tower.
The research is moving slowly, but so far I have a couple participants. Sedat is one. A friend of his is another. And a guy Shima introduced me to is the last. His name is Hakan. I met with him yesterday for the first time. We went to a cafe and had iced tea and talked. Interviewing him should be interesting because he studied in America for a few years and so he talks a lot about American culture and Turkish culture. He's interesting so far. He works in the Galata Tower, so that's how I got up for free! woohoo!
Last night nearly the whole hostel went out again. Sedat didn't come out until later, so I was the shepherd as Alisha called me, herding everyone down the busy drag of Istiklal. I actually didn't know where I was going and we had to ask a few people. They made fun of me :( So on the way home later that night I took a long way back that no one knew and dragged them around small streets in Tophane and Cihangir, a very hilly area. They weren't too pleased...whoops.
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