Sometimes leftovers aren't too bad

     Usually when I travel, I bring my little Moleskine travel notebook with me to jot daily observations and such in.  This time, because I had planned on writing in this blog, I didn't bring it.  And I forgot it. So, there was that too.
     Anyhow, there needs to be both with me, I realize.  Because I tried to scribble stuff down on my scrap paper I carried around with me, but I know I've forgotten stuff that didn't make it onto paper, or into the blog.  Very aggravating.

What follows are the few random things I encountered on the trip, to the best of my recollection.

• I had a layover in JFK on my way to Istanbul, and I opted out of eating at Chili's because that very restaurant is where my buddy Jay had a cockroach in his hamburger.  Really. So I just bought something packaged instead.
• The scooters delivering Burger King were pretty sweet.  Maybe we should do something like that in the States.  Maybe it is already being done in places (I haven't seen it).  And speaking of Burger King, from they way Uğur talked, it seemed more popular than McDonald's over there.  But I didn't bother to research that.
• Our gas prices are rising.  They are probably around $3.70 or $3.80 per gallon on average, nationwide.  Maybe more like $4.40 or so in the larger cities.  We shouldn't complain though.  Gas in Istanbul was $3.86 per Liter.  Want me to do the math for you?  That is a whopping $14.67 per gallon ( I hope I did the math right).  So, stop complaining.
• I had an Australian sharing my room (a 4 bed).  We were in opposite bunks.  Well, this Indian couple came in and didn't like that they were 6 feet apart in 2 different bunks, so the Indian dude just jumped into James' bed (the Australian) while James was out, and the girl took the bunk above him. They then took off for a bit. I just laid in my bunk watching all of this.  A little later, James is back and napping, and wakes up to see the Indian girl staring at him.  She asks if he would move over to my bunk (Indian dude had already been lounging in James' bed anyhow), so he was nice and moved.  I wish I could have made this sound as weird as it was to witness in person.

Zoolander. Was he at Topkapi Palace? © Paramount Pictures.

• There were two Turkish guys (visitors) at Topkapi Palace who were taking "staged" photos of each other.  If I had to guess, they imagined themselves as male models and were striking poses.  Really.  It was a combination of Madonna's "Vogue" video and the Zoolander movie.

• I am having a hard time sleeping past about 5:30am, which was the first ezan (call to prayer) of the day (it changes, but this one is like an hour before dawn).  No matter what, you hear it. And it takes a little while to play through. About enough to fully wake you up if you were still sleeping.
• Do you remember Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce night at the hostel?  Remember my skepticism?  It was well-founded.  There was definitely some sauce on the pasta--barely enough to give it any red color at all.  But apparently this was to be remedied by the condiments brought out to go with the spaghetti.  Ketchup and mayonnaise.....yup.  Ketchup and mayonnaise.  Again, I had already gone out for my donner kebab. So I passed on it.
• If Hylke, Dirk, Catheleine, and Marlies are any indication of what the Dutch are all like, than the Netherlands is in great hands for years and years to come.  Really.  I wish everyone I know could meet the four of them.  And Jochem-- that's Dirk and Catheleine's dog. 
• I need to get Marlies' scarf back to her.  I suspect there was instigation involved, as her scarf turned up in my backpack the morning after we all had dinner at Lotgenoten.  I am pointing fingers at Dirk and Catheliene here.  But, I'll come up with some souvenier to send back along with it.  I need to do better than a keychain, though.  Preferably something impressive. Marlies is pretty awesome.
• Don't lose track of time at the bar in Union Station, because you can miss your train and have to take the next one that leaves 3.5 hours later.  Yeah.  I did that.

Well, everyone.  There you have it.  My short week abroad.  My first attempt to blog.  Hopefully it didn't sound like boring writing about somewhere you weren't.  If it did, I really don't care.  I had fun doing it.

Chasing Daylight

     There is nothing like flying West on an early-morning flight.  Especially a long haul flight.  Your day just goes on, and on, and on.  But even better, so does the daylight.  I think I am around 17 hours of sun so far.  Not too bad for the first week of March.
     The down side to this is that there isn't a whole lot you can do with this extra sun.  You're 38,000 feet in the air moving at almost 600 mph with around 400 other passengers.  You can catch up on movies, reading, writing.  But not getting a tan or working in the garden.

     It's funny.  Coming into Chicago feels almost equally as foreign as it did going into Istanbul or Amsterdam.  O'hare is not very "foreign friendly" compared to many international airports I've been in.  I can see the poor tourists getting lost easily and then getting conned into taking a $60 cab ride into the city, rather than a $2.25 subway fair on the 'L'.

     English was not the first language of the first two Passport Control people and the Customs guy I encountered at O'hare.  In fact, they spoke better English in Amsterdam than these 3 did.  But that's the diversity of our country at work.

Tomorrow, after I wake up and have free time, I'm going over my notes and will be posting the last of my hastily written observations from the week.  Like $14.70 gallon of gas in Istanbul (that's the cheap octane).

The Flying Pig

     I made it through the flight up to Amsterdam.  As I didn't really spend any time in Ataturk Airport (Istanbul) on the way in, I sort of saw everything on my way out yesterday.  Not impressed.  We raise our prices in airports for food a little bit.  They raise their fast food prices about 3x.  And what was really weird was that they had a Popeye's Louisian Kitchen serving up good ol' Popeye's chicken and red beans and rice.  Of all the US restaurant chains that could possibly be chosen, I really don't know how Popeye's ended up there.  With something like a $13 combo meal.

     Marlies, Hylke, Dirk, and Catheleine all took the train in 2 hours to have dinner and drinks with me.  We went out to a little neighborhood restaurant and had quite a time.  They barely caught the last train back home.  I wish they were all coming back to the States with me.

     I caught my own train into Amsterdam Central and headed to the Pig.  Thirteen years ago I was in this very place.  Nothing had changed.  At about 12am I walked into the lobby where there was basically a rave going on, 20 people smoking and 30 people drinking.

    In my bed, there was some stoned Italian who didn't change rooms, so the guy at the desk flipped on the lights and yelled at him (waking up the 3 sleeping Germans who also yelled at the Italian).  He changed up my sheets, I tossed my bag and jacket, and went down to hit the bar until about 3am.

     My train back to Schiphol came early, and by early it was still like 10:04am.  But too early from the night of Strongbow and Guiness from earlier.  So now, I sit here waiting to board my 747.  Time to go.

Uğur and the Disney Cruise Line

     Uğur (you remember?  our bartender.) is ready for a change and told us how he had an interview coming up with Royal Caribbean.  The problem is that they want him to have a third language.  Sadly, he has tried for years to learn German, but it is still pretty bad.
     Royal Caribbean practically said their interview person can't speak German, so he plans on just making stuff up that sounds German.  He admitted he does not have high expectations.

     A few days ago I asked him why he didn't look into Disney Cruise Line, which only requires strong English skills.  Well, I guess he liked this thought, because yesterday he went to the local recruiting office and they are having him come back in this week.

     And that's when he offered me a free beer or two last night.  To critique his CV (resume) and make sure the Enlish was looking good on it.  I warned him I may make lots of changes, but he was excited and didn't care.
     Just a few word-choice changes and pointing out to him that he had left out the fact that he attended university for 2 years for travel and tourism.  So, he quickly added that (sort of a big deal).

     I hope he gets some good news out of this.  He is showing me his corrected CV this morning and going in Wednesday or Thursday.  Uğur said he would keep me posted.  This would be one more I could add to my list of people I helped get a good job for, without being able to get my own.  Ugh.

     Well, I'll be out of the hostel late this morning.  Going to be sad to be going, but at least I will have a nice time tonight in Amsterdam.  My new Dutch friends are coming to see me for sure, so I will be rushing through the airport and throwing my bags in storage to get to them quickly.

     I'm certain I will have a bit more to write about after tonight's visit to the Flying Pig.

My friend, you look Turkish.

     Now, I wasn't really bothered by locals peddling their wares at the Spice Market, but I do want to mention a tactic that was used routinely.  Not just there, but all over any tourist area of Istanbul I visited.

     That "you" look Turkish.  Yes. Me.  You.  The blonde German girl and her friends.  The three Japanese girls.  It goes like this:

"Hello my friend.  Where are you from?"
     I try to make a non-commital grunt at this point. Preferably barely moving my lips, but just enough to appear I gave an answer.
"Ah. America (or whatever country fits for you. They just guess anyhow)."
"But you know, you look Turkish."
     At this point, you are still walking and cruising past them, but they try to fall in step.  For me, I'm thinking they are just foolish sales people.
    Clearly they can see my hairy wrists and knuckles.  And neck hair.  And if that was all they were comparing it from, then sure.  I'm hairy like Turk men.  I see the confusion.  So are a bunch of you.

But if there are blue-eyed, brown-haired Turks, I haven't seen them anywhere.

     The good news is that "Not wanted" or "No chance" really takes care of it.  Even better if you utter it to them in Turkish.  Istemez! or something like that.

     The smells in the Spice Market were amazing.  A combination of spices, dried fruits, Turkish delight.  If I could package it, I would.  If I see it packaged however, I will probably avoid it.

     Tonight is spaghetti with tomato sauce night here at the hostel.  You'd think... must be spaghetti with tomato sauce.  I'd say you would be jumping to conclusions, and really should wait to see what is on the plate.  Their spaghetti with tomato sauce will probably be udon noodles with whole steamed tomatoes sitting on it, or something equally as confusing.

     In the meantime, before the great spaghetti adventure, I'm going out for a kebab.  Always a safe choice.  I'll leave you with a picture of stray cats.

Stray cats.  They are all this pretty, actually.  No ratty/ matted fur. Just a bunch of clean, well-fed strays. Everywhere.

Dice. Sunrise. Nutella.

     Movies and popcorn at the hostel never materialized.  Uğur (our "bartender") totally forgot, and I told him his selection of a current movie was probably Short Circuit on VHS-Pal or something along those lines, so no big loss.

     Instead, the dozen of us kept him busy getting beer while we all threw dice for some low-stakes TL.  As the winning was spread out, no one really lost anything and we were able to play for quite a while for no more than the cost of a beer.  We had about 8 new arrivals and they were all happy to join in.  Still a fun bunch here at the hostel.  But after hitting about 2am and having lost my 7 TL, I called it quits.

     Since this turned into an early night, I wanted to get up and see if I could take a photo or two of the sunrise over the Sea of Marmara from our rooftop.  Without setting my alarm (even though I wanted to take a picture, I didn't want to take it that badly), and managed to wakeup right at 6:30am with no problems.

     Breakfast started at 7:30, so for 45 minutes I just sat upstairs in the bar on the computer, knowing delicious Nutella awaited me at that point.  Nutella advertising may have you thinking it is only good on breads for breakfast.  I posit that Nutella would be good on pretty much anything. But someone else can try and let me know.

And now, it's 10am.  Time to get ready to head out for the day.  I think the Spice Market is on the agenda.  And maybe a trip across the Bosphorous.

Trusting Hylke

     Noon on Sunday saw the departure of my new Dutch friends.  As I didn't have my camera out the previous night, I am counting on Hylke to deliver our group picture to me via email.  This is a pretty safe bet, as he is a big camera nut, and was the one who gathered us together for picture in the first place.

     This is when they sprung the good news on me that they would come into Amsterdam to meet me Tuesday night, so it wasn't too bad a goodbye for now.

    Upon their departure, I headed up to Topkapi Palace.  This was Istanbul's palace of the Sultans of the Ottoman empire from the 15th-19th century.  I'm not going into all of the history of the place, but it was pretty spectacular.

     They have the palace's treasury setup with the gifts/ spoils of war that the Sultans had aquired through the years, and one of these is an 86-carat cut diamond (the Kaşikçi diamond), housed in a setting of 49 other brilliant diamonds.  I cannot express how big this thing is.  It is the size of a small apple.  And not a crab apple.  A regular apple.
     The other treasury pieces (four rooms full of these) were weapons, housewares, and other gems that were encrusted in more rubys, emeralds, and diamonds than you could imagine.  It was quite a sight to walk through.

     More impressive were some of the religious artifacts on display.  Items from Joseph, Abraham, Moses, and a bunch from Muhammad.  These received far more protection and security than the jewelry did.

     Last part I'll tell you about is the Harem.  This was a very large part of the palace, just do to its nature.  Filled with apartments for women who resided there, apartments for the young princes, libraries, baths.  All built around courtyards and hallways created to keep a heirarichal flow present.

Overall, a really good place to visit.  I forgot to mention it has a great view of the Bosphorus as well.

I think I'm going to send Hylke a reminder later today about the photo. Just to be safe.