Hey Shithead, how about a kebab

Jesus fuck... where do I begin... I've been kept off my feet in this whirlwind of a city for the past few days, generally trying my best to 'be turkish'.

I met this really cool local guy who I've been hanging around with. He lives in France and is only visiting so he's taking the opportunity to do 'the tourist thing' as well and generally be my tourguide.

First of all, the lingo: My turkish is actually coming along quite well. I've got to the point where I can sit down at a cafe and pretty much order what I want and have all the rudimentary dealings with the waiter with him thinking that I can talk turkish... It's only if he queries anything or seeks to deepen the friendly banter, that I am unmasked as a fraud with a limited number of multipurpose word conjectures and generic grunts. Tonite I learned all the bad words so that I can pepper my language with these, making me by default 'more natural'.

On Monday we went to the Princess Islands for a night. They're these islands off Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara where the local tourists go. They don't allow motorised propulsion on the island so everything is horse and carty (very quaint but slightly malodourous). Spent the day lying on the beach trying to get some kind of base before I hit the south and the med. As I said though, the tourism there was mainly turkish with the occassional arab, so I kinda stuck out like a sore thumb. (Ye know those haribo cola bottles... think about a white one of those lying amongst loads of brown ones).

Other than that, have been consuming vast amounts of tea and beer (in alternating binges) and have been trying some of the local chow (which ain't all that bad). I've done 'some' touristy stuff, and I do feel bad when I hear about all the museums that other people have seen, but I really couldn't be that arsed doing anymore museums.... I might go to a Hamam (Turkish bath) tomorrow. So I'm gonna do a runner tomorrow and leggit down to Izmir, Turkey's second biggest city and a bit beachy... Will post a photo or two soon.

L8r.... C

PS: For those of you who were wondering, Turkish Delight is disgusting here as well.... yes, it still tastes like soap!

The Plan

So, day three is going well. Spent yesterday sunbathing, visiting the grand bazaar, had a typical anatolian meal and generally walked a lot. I've also got a turkish mate here who's been showing me around and today we're gonna drive up the bosphorous and generally chill out. The food last night was good... lots of good meat and meatbally type things (really tasty lamb)... had a yoghurt drink with it called ayran (which I remember all the turks in Berlin drinking), a really nice dessert which was a mix between a creme brulee and a rice pudding, and turkish coffee (which is essentially caffeine heroin and should be taken intraveneously).

Also, I came up with a plan for the rest of turkey. It goes like this: Istanbul - Izmir - Bodrun - Antalya - Konya - Cappadoccia - Ankara (Southwestern Anatolia & Med) and then from Ankara - Trapzom - Van - Urfu - Vanin in the East before crossing into Iran

That's all for now... peace out. C.


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Afternoon Tea

Just spent the afternoon getting tea horsed into me by a very sound french-speaking turkish dude. He's from the Kurdish area of Turkey and explained the whole 'kurdish' thing to me... (I will post something on that when I understand it more).He wouldn't let me put my hand in my pocket... sound as fuck these turks!

C

Lift Off

Okeedokee so, here's blog post number one from the road... arrived into istanbul yesterday!Seems to be a pretty groovy place so far. Last night when I arrıved, I went for a walk around the old part of the city and generally arsed around knockin brewski's into me for a while. It's warm but not unbearable... Had a good sleep last nıght despıte the fact that some halfwit aussie robbed my bed and I had to sleep on a bare mattress. (I'd forgotten about the joys of budget travellıng and dormroom banter)...I decided to start this trip as I aim to continue so I'm going super mega budget for now. (Last time I went away, I spent most of my travel budget in the first two months and I'm not going to let that happen again.... although I wouldn't take back a single one of those buenos aires steaks....mhhhhhhhh.... drooooool!).

So when I got to the airport last night, rather than my usual taxi (I get a taxi to the bathroom in dublin) I took a combination of metro, tram, bus and walking to get to the hostel. It took about two hours and several little diversions. While I was walking along, they did the 'call to prayer' thingy (mcchhchchcalllllllahahahahahahmccccallallalahahaha.... allahhhhhhhhhhmchmchmch), which is a bit mad altogether ... no doubt there'll be more on that in later posts. And all that with my 22kg rucksack on my back and 9kg backpack on my front. By the time I got to the hostel, I was sweating like a blind lesbian in a fish market, but the water was off so I couldn't have a shower. Fear not though, cos I am ridiculously well prepared and have a complete kit for 'no water' cleaning which I was chuffed to be able to use on my first night.

Soooooo, aaaaannnyyway... what else is there. Got up early this morning and had a super-mega-cheapo brekkie of .... bread with honey... (Honey's actually very tasty, I always thought I didn't like it for some reason). Then I had a look at the blue mosque today and have been generally walking around the city... I've just crossed to the north of the city and walked up a big hill and am now shagged altogether, but I'm going to persevere until I get to Taksim Square where all the action is supposed to be.

May Allah be with you all...

Ur man in Istanbul... C

PS: Actually, I'm on the western side of istanbul and haven't gone to the 'Asian' side yet. And seen as the trip is going to be 'Asia', this really this isn't part of it, it's more like a 'precursor' or an 'amuse-bouche'... haha