Too Many J's

The rain that had been following us around throughout the ends of our trips through cities didn't disappoint at the end of our stay in Zagreb, only this time it rained in earnest. None of this drizzling mist stuff. We had discovered a bit of a time discrepancy on when we needed to be in Austria and were making new plans on the fly. We decided that the best thing do do was to stay in Ljubljana for the night and catch the next train to the town in Austria we were going to be skiing in. This prompted us to pack in a hurry and run out the door thanking our host profusely. I mean the man bought be a bag of Turkish coffee and taught me how to make it, all because I said I didn't drink alcohol and instead enjoyed coffee. He was quite a cool man. The rain pushed us to our goal quickly, and the tram sheltered us all the way to the train station.

Slovenia, we thought, was going to be a lot like Zagreb; cool, but not really worth spending more than a day in. Our train ride through the countryside of Slovenia was trying to prove us wrong. It was a beautiful ride that wandered through the mountainous region. We had seen evidences of a large amount of water recently being in the area, and the river that was by the tracks raged as it was bursting at the seams. 

Before getting to Ljubljana I had read that the exchange rate was similar to that of Hungary. I was relieved to find out that they had changed to the Euro in 2007. I was back to not having to stretch my brain to find out how many Euros went into different currencies. As it turns out, the city of Ljubljana has many fun things to see. We could spend more than just one afternoon here but that is not how time works for us right now. We heard tell of a castle on a hill and promptly searched it out. On our way up the hill we navigated past an incredible amount of fallen trees due to water. As it turns out there was indeed a lot of water that had recently fallen in the area. We finally made it to the top of the hill and to the castle. There we climbed to the top of the tower and looked over the city. We may or may not have a complex about needing to be on the highest point around. From here we could see the cute town (yes I did just use that word to describe a town). It was quaint and in many ways resembled parts of Austria. Since Austria is just a few hours away I could see this to be possible. Nestled in the southern part of what used to be Yugoslavia, Slovenia had many of the same issues as the rest of Yugoslavia, and several more to boot. In a country that is only one year older than me, I found it to be quite remarkable what all they have done. Being the first country I have been too in weeks to use the Euro, proves that their economic state is relatively stable. I had just one problem with Ljubljana. It has too many j's in the name.

First coming here I had, as previously mentioned, thoughts that this might not be an interesting city. I was thinking that for entertainment people learned how to spell the city with super hard spelling. I knew that's what I was probably going to end up doing. Because I was wrong in assuming there would be nothing to do, I still don't know how to spell it. I had to copy the name off of Google and am pasting it wherever I want to use the word. The pronunciation makes it worthwhile in the end. Because even though it is an exceptionally hard word to spell, it's really fun to say. And frankly, that's all that matters, we have the internet for the spelling.

300 to 1

Foreword: 

In preparing for this blog I had made many notes about jokes I could make about being hungry in Hungary. You see, for some reason, my metabolism kicked into really high gear right around the time I visited the city of Budapest. I found it inconvenient because it could potentially cost large sums of money, that is, until I found a grocery store and realized their groceries are actually really cheap. Still, I always found myself searching for sustenance and as much as the setup for the play on words is there, I must refrain. But please know that it is with great restraint that this blog stays pun free. Other blogs haven't been so lucky,

*****  

We left Romania like we entered it. Cold and rainy. All other days in between were perfect weather so it didn't matter that entry and exit days were of poor weather. We traipsed from the city center to the train station and caught our sleeper train to Budapest.

I don't remember sleeping well. The bed was too short like most beds, but for some reason I was exceptionally squished on it. By morning I felt as though I was 15 cm shorter. I my head would later find this to be false. Finding out that the Hungarian currency is about 300 Forints to 1 Euro I saw my first bill with a ten thousand on it. In a bit of a miscommunication we had neglected to book a hostel. So we found the nearest McDonalds (free wifi) and ordered something to eat. I ordered a yummy pastry for an equivalent of about 1,50 Euro. We booked our hostel then walked across town to it. 

It wasn't until later that I realized I had made a tragic mistake. I had left my charger in the hostel in Romania. (See The Charger Interlude) Now I had to walk around all of Budapest for two days without a cell phone. Determined to not let this ruin my stay in the city I headed out with all my camera gear into the vast unknown. We found a palace on a hill and explored it. Due to lack of sleep the night before I wasn't feeling the excitement that I normally do when first arriving at a city, especially one so awesome as Budapest. There at the palace, which was now a museum, I learned that Budapest used to be two cities named Buda and Pest. It wasn't until later that they became the one city.

Earlier in the day I had thought I shrank by about six inches because of my sleep on the train. But this was later confirmed to be false when I hit my head entering and exiting an old World War 2 bunker museum.  This museum showed the struggles of Budapest in the second world war. It was truly sobering to see the suffering that this city went through. 

After realizing that we hadn't eaten something of real sustenance in almost 24 hours (a small 1,50 Euro sweet roll doesn't count) we were starving. We found a most excellent place to eat. No longer starving, I was now reenergized and ready to explore the city again. We walked all over, took metros  and trams, and made it through most of the really cool parts of the city. They have a most amazing Parliament building. 

Two days flew buy one of them had rain and cloudy weather. That one storm seemed to follow us everywhere. It didn't matter, there were plenty of things to see that were right by metro or tram stops that we could get there in relative dryness. This city made a very good case to have me return to it some day. I am convinced that I want to really badly. 

On our last night, the rainy night, we walked through so I could get some night shots of the city. There was a region that I thought looked straight out of Minas Tirith and Cair Paravel and I had to photograph it at night. While Michael avoided the rain by sipping on some coffee in a diner just inside the Cair Paravel building I sat outside incredibly happy to be in such a cool city even in the rain. 

Our journey to Zagreb, Croatia was about to begin. To find out about that city read my Zagreb blog.

Part of the region that I thought looked like Minas Tirith

An area in the section that I thought looked like Cair Paravel.
 The Minas Tirith looking church stands across the square from here.
I was standing in between the two when this was shot

The exceptionally beautiful Hungarian Parliament building 

Science, Art, and Pizza

We arrived in Croatia in the evening this time. It was not far enough to take an over night train from Budapest so we spent the afternoon on the train. Six hours later, Poof! in Zagreb. I was reading a very gripping book so it did actually feel kinda like that. We just kinda rolled in. 

I had uncharacteristically decided that I wanted to read more. I figured it was better for my health than watching myriads of movies, contrary to my life belief. I decided to better myself. Besides, books are still stories, they are just a lot longer, and require a longer commitment of time, and reading is harder than watching a movie. But I quickly got over myself when I found a super interesting book about a Danish spy in the second world war. Truly a gripping book. I made it through more than half of it on the train ride. 

Our arrival into Zagreb was about as ceremonious as two guys getting off a six hour train ride. Convenient how that works out. We hopped on the first tram to our destination and arrived at a really cool, down to earth hostel. The guy who runs the place is really cool. His name is Igor. He is a fun Croatian who speaks nearly flawless English; German and Croatian are also perfectly comfortable languages for him. We talked for a while before we decided it was time to head to bed. The morning we were to explore this new and exciting city.

Morning halfheartedly dawned and mother nature took on the characteristics of a curmudgeonly old man. The nice weather we had the night before turned into low fog and rain. This inspires even the most earnest of travelers to create alternate plans. We decided to find as many indoor things to do as possible. As it turns out, Zagreb isn't the most interesting city in the world. It's not very big, and there just aren't that many fascinating things to do. Unless you like museums that is. Fortunately we do. After briefly visiting an incredibly normal giant cathedral we headed for the city's technical museum. This promised to be interesting. They even had a presentation on Nikolai Tesla, inventor of at least 7 different ways to zap people with lightening. The museum was quite interesting. For the presentation we followed a school group in as instructed by the man looking suspiciously like John Cusack. We were the only ones in the lecture room that weren't from this class. Also, the only ones to not speak Croatian. My basic knowledge of Tesla, and my new life ability to at least somewhat understand people of other languages helped me enjoy the lecture. I learned a few Croatian words but promptly forgot them as I will probably never need to use them again.

After the museum trip we found ourselves to be craving sustenance. We therefore headed towards the city center in search of vittles. Our search took a significant time longer than we planned, so our appetite was not lessened by the time we arrived upon a suitable eatery. I ate an entire giant pizza of mushrooms and cheese with a single green olive placed decoratively in the perfect center. Pleased with this arrangement we endeavored to further our entertainment by ways of museums. However our lack of knowledge of the region and my lack of cell phone at this point, yielded to the need for a tourist information center. Fortunately we found one, collected museum brochures and in a game of choosing the right hand decided upon the gallery of modern art. Our time to become farcical pretentious art critics was about to commence.

In addition to the attempt at betterment via reading more, I have also adopted a want for better posture. As exhausting as it is to retrain my body after years of horrific posture, this new effort came in perfect timing for the art museum. I postured about pretentiously through the halls of thickly splattered paints, and oddly sculpted plasters, collectively with Michael naming each work of art or describing the angst the artist had while creating their works. Each item spoke to the true nature of the essence of art in life and the needs to express their innermost smudge on an otherwise white sheet of paper. I was sure to stare at each item and cross my arms, lean in to examine closer, and occasionally stroke my beard in contemplative wonderment. Our titles and backgrounds became more fanciful until our absurd creativity and subsequent game waned with the daylight. Having previously planned to visit the Zagreb Eye, a viewpoint from high atop a local tall building, at night, we bid the art gallery farewell in a journey to the center of the city again. 

We still had about a half hour of daylight left and we wanted a warm beverage. So we found a place ambiguously indoors (kind of indoors but secretly not because the "mall" had no doors and the shop had a roof that opened to the hall, therefore indirectly the outdoors, but still indoors) and ordered our drinks. I ordered simply "tea" and hoped that what returned was both inexpensive, and not terribly experimental. I sipped on this liquid that felt like it had recently visited the surface of the sun, and when I drank it too fast warmth struck my body like a sledgehammer.  Boy was it delicious though. I'm not sure what it was, some kind of berry tea, but it tasted excellent with lemon. 

The Zagreb Eye was a viewpoint with rails several inches apart from floor to ceiling. My hopes of a panoramic shot now gave way as fast as the inside wall of my esophagus after that tea. There was not really a way to jam my fat wide angle lens through the slats so I went with the telephoto. It was dark and the city looked nice all lit up. I was happy with our day in Zagreb. Frankly, we did things that you can do in almost any capitol city in the world, but what made it special was that we did it all in a country I had never been in.

Epilogue:

That night we decided to make our own meals for the next two so we went grocery shopping. After our obtainment of further nourishment we headed to our hostel. As I previously mentioned, the man there is very cordial, and we had another absorbing talk about movies and life. He had come from town and bought ice cream and offered to share it with us. Naturally I accepted. He will go down as one of my favorite hostel managers. You find awesome people wherever you go. All you have to do is be willing to give someone the chance.

The Charger Interlude

As soon as it happened I was distraught. I had heard of these things happening to other people but I never thought it would happen to me. I am very careful about remembering where all my electronic things are but as luck would have it, I left my phone charger at the hostel I had recently stayed at. At this point I began the first of the five stages of grief. I first went through denial. I hadn't left it. I just wrapped it into my other cords. I mean they are all white, they all look the same. Unfortunately this was not so. I was pacing nervously in my new hostel room, anxious of what a future without a phone charger would mean.  Is there life after cell phone?

As I walked a path into the floor of the hostel pondering these implications I began the second stage: Anger and guilt. If only I had been more careful, then my phone wouldn't be so lonely. I felt guilty for the lose of connection my phone would feel, I felt guilty for the inconvenience I had bestowed upon myself, and most of all, I felt anger. I was angry at myself, I was angry at fate, and I became angry at Apple for making the chargers so dang expensive. But then the next stage hit and I found myself bargaining with God. If he just brought my charger back, then I would be a better person. If my charger miraculously appeared upon my bedside, then I would travel the world proclaiming the good news that miracles still happen. Alas, I was faced with the reality that it just wasn't coming back. I had moved to the next stage.

When reality sets in, often so does depression, and loneliness. I was depressed. This small device that had brought so much joy and ease to my life lay lifeless on my bed. My pocket was empty without my phone there by my side. I began to finally accept that it wasn't going to come back. That I really needed to buckle down and buy another charger. Things had gotten too far out of hand. I had to constantly ask what time it was, I didn't have my back up camera with me, and most of all, I couldn't meaninglessly stab at the screen hoping to be entertained for a few seconds. After I had accepted that this loss was final I was finally ready to move on. 

There was an Apple store here in Zagreb and the man was very helpful. He asked if I wanted a two meter long charger or one. A pang of sadness hit. Nothing could replace the old one. But a one meter cable would do the trick. Besides it was half the price of the two meter. That's not happening. Handel's Hallelujah Chorus rang in my ears as I walked on clouds out of the store. Or maybe it was just that ubiquitous white glow that's in all Apple stores. Either way it has an effect that makes one feel great whenever around them. I was finally able to charge my phone again. And as I plugged the USB plug into my computer this evening, the all familiar two vibrate sound rang in my ears and the half eaten white apple appeared on my screen. I guess I would have to wait and see if there really was life after cell phone. 

Romania

I was surprised by Bulgaria, and when I saw Brasov, Romania, I was very excited. I had heard that the mountains in Romania were the stuff of a little known legend. As I sat in a meadow deep within the mountains, staring out at the view before me, I knew this was true. Michael and I had endeavored to go on a hike through the woods. We stumbled across a staggering view. The forest suddenly opened up to a rolling meadow giving a clear line of sight to the mountains ahead. At this moment for me, I was in paradise. Away from the sounds and distractions of the city, away from the hard concrete walkways, and deep within nature, where I realized I had not been in a long time.

We took the overnight train from Sofia to Brasov. At this point we developed a fondness for overnight trains and sleeper cars. Going to sleep in one country and waking up in another seemed like the way to go. We had a few hiccups on the train with the workers because neither of us spoke a common language, but it was quickly resolved when a man who did speak a common language helped out. As was the theme with most every trip I have been on I had no idea what to expect and was excited for the adventure. 

After spending some time sitting in the meadow I decided that I should stop sitting around and actually get some pictures. I spent an inordinate amount of time taking the pictures because I really wasn't feeling in the mood to leave. 

When we got to Brasov, there was fog, low clouds and rain. Not my ideal weather. We traipsed through the city following the directions I had made. Problem was that I found them on Google Maps and it had taken the liberty of translating everything into English. None of the street signs matched and soon we found ourselves wandering aimlessly through a new city, in the rain. We found a bus stop with a map on it but apparently the street we were looking for was too small to be on the map. Later discoveries would tell me that I was just looking in the wrong spot. So we found an area with free wifi and I looked up the address on my map and dropped a pin so I could navigate there. Something I should have done in the first place. Life lessons don't always come when its sunny and dry. After taking what we found out later to be the longest route to our hostel from where we were, we made it.

The meadow was nice, but now I needed to move on. I packed up my tripod, left my camera around my neck, and continued on. Every new step had a new angle and a new view. But sometimes it is better to not take the picture and just enjoy the view for yourself. It makes it that much more special. By this time Michael had wandered a bit farther down the meadow so I really did seem to have this view all to myself. We met up at an abandoned house that upon closer inspection found out that it was not worth closer inspection. So we headed back off into the woods, the ski area as our goal.

At the hostel we dropped our things off, showered and prepared to head back out. After walking through the city, we went up the hill that promised a "staggering view of the city". I felt that seemed worth it. We climbed to the Hollywood style sign of Brasov. Where indeed the view was breathtaking. It turned out to be more breathtaking on a day when there weren't low clouds and fog. That evening we planned the next day. An all day tour of the surrounding castles. This was an excellent plan to me. I love castles and we would be able to visit the famed Dracula castle.   

Back in the woods and out of the forest our journey took us over some hills and through some dips that were wishing to someday be valleys when they got bigger. It abruptly spat us out onto the road. This road we had been somewhat following so that we didn't get lost. Not always did we have a trail to follow. Our ultimate goal  was the ski area. 

The castle tour was great. We had our own private taxi that the hostel had arranged. The man took us to the castles and really wherever we wanted in the general vicinity. Good thing for him we all just wanted the next castle. There was an Australian on this trip with us. He had signed up the night before also, making it a three man trip. Yes, there was an Australian in my last blog, yes there are millions of them traveling everywhere. I have seen them at every city. The castles were awesome. My favorite was the Peles castle. The Dracula castle was cool, but the Peles castle was extremely ornate. Designed right around the time of Neuschwanstein, it was everything Neuschwanstein wasn't. Because Peles was a lot smaller, it could be completed. At the time it was the most modern castle, it even had an electric elevator. Many of the amenities it was built with are still used. The Dracula castle had a macabre feeling to it that had its own appeal. The third and final castle was more like a fortress. There wasn't' a "castle" on it. It was the remains of an old walled city fortress. It was clearly very old because there was not a whole lot of it left. It was cool to see such an old fortress though. The view from it was amazing. I looked out and had a perfect 360 degree view. I saw a ski resort in the distance. 

After walking on the road for about ten minutes, we made it to the ski resort. Had I thought about it, I would have tried to look out and see the fortress that we were on just two days before. But I didn't think about it. We walked around, at this point very hungry from our hike. We knew we didn't want to have to walk back so we decided to catch a bus. Because it was just too expensive to eat there we dismissed our hunger and waited until the city.

After the castle day we decided to stay two more days. The advantage to this was the hostel offered a stay three nights get the fourth one free. We knew we wanted a day to just rest and not have to walk anywhere. This has been a good plan that we developed on our longer trips. Since we got a fourth day free we figured we weren't wasting any money sitting around in a hostel all day. The next day, our fourth, we decided to go on a hike through the woods to see where it would lead. We ended up at a ski resort some eight to ten miles away. The hike was everything I could have wanted and more.

After the hike, we found a fantastic döner shop and bought some remarkably good priced dinner. No longer will I be satisfied with the reasonably sized döners in the rest of Europe. These things were massive and it made my day. We sat out on a bench in the city when an old lady came up to us and started talking. We are used to beggars coming up so we just ignored her at first. After we made it very clear we didn't speak Romanian she persisted still. From what I gathered, she was telling us a story of someone who died falling off the cliff near the Hollywood style Brasov sign. A tear started in her eye and she left. About an hour later. Michael and I were in another part of town munching on our pastries we had procured for dessert and the same lady finds us again. Still chatting as if we spoke Romanian. At this point I had no idea what she was saying. So we just nodded. She eventually got what she wanted to say out and then just left. 

Because we take overnight trains, we had a part day to fill before heading to Budapest. We decided hiking was the best way to do this. So we hiked in some other hills and eventually found another amazing lookout. (As it turns out it was about 20 meters from the Brasov sign.) I didn't find any reason to leave quickly from here either so I sat and looked out over the city. It was a great way to end the trip to a really cool region.

Now we are in Hungary, the train is almost to Budapest and our adventure there will begin soon. Of course, since there is no internet on the train, I will actually be in my hostel by the time this is posted. I am excited though, Budapest looks like a fun city. The exchange rate isn't too bad either.

A Scandal in Bulgaria

scan·dal 

noun: 1. an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public outrage.

          2. Transgression or wrong doing

          3. disrepute.

After a very eventful night we wake up to find ourselves rumbling through a completely different country than we had left the day before. In Istanbul there was a lot of people (just under 14 million), when we woke up there was nothing, in Istanbul there was civilization, on the train, the toilet opened onto the tracks…everything was completely different. But for some reason it all made sense. We were in a country that until recently had been under the grip of Communism. And frankly I was wanting to see how many stereotypes I could find while on the train. 

I was sure to find many stereotypes but one thing still clung to the back of my mind, what in the world is Sofia going to look like. I felt like I was going on a blind date with someone from the moon. I didn't know what to expect other than it was going to be the most different from what I had experienced. 

We arrived at a random station in Bulgaria, I have no idea where. But we were pretty sure it wasn't Sofia. There weren't really any people there and it seemed to be a small town. We didn't think it was the capitol city of a country. We ended up sitting at this train station for about two and a half hours before we started moving again…about 30 meters before reversing. This proceeded to happen about four times before we made any progress.  Apparently we were adding more cars to the train.

While sitting at the station for what seemed like the whole day. a range of thoughts went through my head, "Are we actually in Sofia, should we get off. What if we aren't and the train leaves, no other train comes through here." As well as "No one speaks English or German so we cannot ask anyone what's going on." Fortunately we stayed on. And though our train was scheduled to be in Sofia at noon, it showed up around supper time. 

Arriving in Sofia seemed a bit Monty Pythonesque to me. I thought the soup would be made with Vodka and the drivers would be absolutely insane. I thought I would see men in uniforms marching down the streets and banners of a man in a giant mustache hanging from windows. Only the part about the drivers was actually true. While standing outside a grocery store the next day, I saw 5 almost collisions that would have been horrific, all in the span of 15 minutes. 

We wandered the city deciphering Cyrillic, which turned out to not be quite as hard as I thought, and we made it to the hostel. We had met an Australian on the train that was traveling alone so we offered to hang out. She ended up staying at the same hostel and then met some other Australians and a Canadian and hung out with them too. 

Through my trip so far I had been looking for stereotypes. I was hoping to see things like, a goat pulling a car, or a cart of bread, maybe a dead cow on the tracks, and a lot of root based foods everywhere. Let your mind wander on the stereotypes of the Eastern Block and thats what my perception of this part of the world was. I saw a nice car parked beside the tracks and thought it was a drug lords car with maybe some RPGs or a body in the trunk. I really knew nothing about this country or this region.

In Sofia, the train station wasn't really proving me wrong. Neither was just outside it. There was a bathroom that hadn't been used in forever that had trash piled almost two meters high in it. We kept walking and things kept getting nicer. The place where our hostel was, turned out to be a good spot. Then we found out what ten Euros a night will buy in a country like this. It may not be true all over, but we got a really good deal. Basically we had a quite large apartment to ourselves. To those of you who live in Europe and know what a Wohngemeinschaft or WG as most people call them, it was a nice one of those. America, its an apartment with several rooms and a common living area, kitchen and bathrooms (Yes Germany has just one word to describe that whole sentence). The 10E also got us a yummy supper and an all you can eat buffet breakfast. I was feeling good about this.

Stereotypes were sliding away by the minute. Not only was the city quite nice, but a lot more people than I thought, spoke English. I was thinking they would be pouring their waste into the gutters out of wooden buckets but instead there was free wifi in the parks. Also a fabulous trumpet street performer in said park, but I digress…I began to feel bad that I thought this way about such a beautiful place. Granted, there really was at one point a goat pulling a car full of assorted things right next to the train tracks, but it wasn't all like that. What I thought Communism would have left the country was poor, without hope, and pretty much grey and bleak. Instead what I saw was a concerted effort to change their history and their city and make a real name for themselves and their homeland. I couldn't imagine doing anything else if I were in their shoes. The people were incredibly nice and the food was not cooked in Vodka…at least not the food I had. There were several pretty churches and many things to see. Communism had left a giant gap in the classes. Not everything in Bulgaria was nice like Sofia, but I feel like in a few years…things could be different and running water could come out to the countryside too. 

At the end of the day in Sofia, I had really developed a fondness for the area. Also there were mountains. That's never a bad thing. The people were definitely not used to a whole lot of tourists, especially in February, so we got what felt like special attention. I loved my time in Bulgaria, and if I could counter my wrong doings, my transgression of ill thoughts towards this country, I would write a blog about how great my time was there. 

Heaven in a Cube -updated

Life around Friedensau had returned to normal after our Christmas break had finished. The daily attendance to class followed by the normal after school activities. We finally had snow, which fulfilled my every wish about winter. It stuck around for a while too. We built a giant snowman which became a bit famous as it was right in front of the building everyone had classes. Through all the time we had, Michael and I inadvertently reverted to our original plan for the coming trip. Have a plane ticket to Istanbul and a global pass train ticket out, other than that wing it. We did intend to do a bit of planning but that fell by the wayside. Life is more fun to live spontaneously anyways.

So we were off to Istanbul. I had never been farther east than Germany so I had no idea what to expect other than delightful food in Istanbul. The name Turkish delight is a bit of an understatement, its more like heaven in a cube, but in my eyes it also refers to anything edible in this country. If the food on the flight was any indication, it was going to be good eating for the next few days. It was not wrong. I was pleased. We landed in Ataturk around 11pm and found passport control and the visa counter. After that, we headed to the metro to get to our hostel. As we approached we noticed something a bit odd. There weren't many people heading that way and those that were, were running. A bit curious, we found our answer in the form of a rushing metro attendant who told us the last metro left at midnight. It was about a minute til. He ran around getting us the passes we needed and we boarded with seconds to spare. It was good because the airport was a really long ways from the rest of the town, and subsequently our hostel. We got off the metro to find all other forms of public transportation also closed. We kinda guessed where to go and managed to eventually find our hostel. We had several stray dogs follow us for about a half hour and when we got to the park separating the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque, they wandered off. Our hostel was right around the corner. Perfect location. We made it there by 2am, slept in a bit, and started Day 1 refreshed and ready to go.

*****

Day 1 in Istanbul started with an awesome, albeit fairly small, breakfast on the roof of our hostel. The perfect location allowed us to see the Blue Mosque and the ocean at the same time. Not a bad spot indeed. We met up with Jessica and Jeremy, other ACA friends who were in Istanbul, in the park between the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. I didn't realize the night before just how big they were. They are quite massive. While waiting, I heard my first call to prayer in the minarets from the Blue Mosque. It was a really cool cultural experience. I also found some street vendors that were selling some awesome looking pastries with Nutella in them for one Turkish Lira (the currency there. 1 Lira = about 50 cents USD) so naturally I ate some.

The weather was never terrible in Istanbul. The one time it "rained" it lasted a whole five minutes and I think I felt two drops on me. We explored the insides of the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque where you had to adhere to the customs of Islam and take off your shoes and cover your head if you were a woman. 

After this we wandered around the Grand Bazaar marveling at all the vendors. The way they tried to get business from us was interesting. Following us around, sometimes grabbing our arms, and always practicing their English vernacular. Things like 'sup bro, and others were things they used to get our attention. We eventually got hungry and found a place to eat. I wasn't too hungry because I had snacked on the wares of the street vendors so I only purchased some Baklava and some Turkish Tea. Good life choice. It was amazing. The best Baklava I have ever eaten. The Turks also know how to make some good beverages. Tea and coffee there are phenomenal. If I ate lots of Turkish food for the rest of my life, it wouldn't make me sad. As the evening progressed and we wandered through the streets more, we found ourselves wanting to find something new. There was a square that, from what we heard, was where lots of people liked to hang out, and we thought some people watching was in order. But when we got there, all was not as we planned.

Our first indication that something was up should have been that no one was going up the stairs, in fact, people were going down the up escalators. Not really thinking much of it we pressed through the crowds and just as we stepped onto the escalator everything became clear…in that fuzzy, I can't really see way. Apparently there was a protest up in this square and tear gas had been thrown to disperse the crowds. We walked right into it. We continued up to see what the deal was and we saw lots of police and riot control teams, etc. We hung around for a little bit, but as things appeared to escalate we bid a hasty retreat to anywhere other than where we were. We eventually decided to end the evening and head back to the hostel. 

*****

Day 2 in Istanbul started a lot like the first. A wonderful breakfast on the roof, sun beating down on us in glorious spring like fervor. We had a few hours before meeting the others so we went up a nearby tower to see over the city. It was also beautiful. Wind was a bit of an issue whenever we were up high, or by the water. No big deal though.

When we met the others we decided to go to the Prince's Islands; some islands a few miles off the mainland. The ferry ride was nice and we saw many birds playing with the people on the deck as they threw food to the birds and watched them catch it. It was a fun game all seemed to enjoy. I did not participate because if I was going to spend some money on food, you can be sure I was going to the the one eating it.

The island we got off on was nice. At the top was a park. We wandered around that and saw the back side of the island where we took many pictures. It was a nice time and the only motivation to leave was the threat of being left on the island by the last ferry and our increasing hunger. After we found out we had time, we ate at a local restaurant. Clearly this was not your average tourist restaurant because no one spoke a word of English. With a lot of pointing at the menu we finally got our order taken care of. We were excited. It was going to be delicious. When it came out, we were not disappointed. We did however, probably get taken for a loop on the bill later. They used the excuse of not speaking a common language to over charge us. Whatever, it was in Lira and the exchange rate wasn't too bad.

We took the last ferry out and when we got to the mainland, went our separate ways for the night. At our hostel Michael and I had to plan on how to get to Sofia, Bulgaria. We always figured we could take a train out, because that's what you do in every European country. We could do this for Istanbul too, but the only train out was at 10pm the next night.

*****

Day 3 in Istanbul. We weren't really sure how things were going to go in the train department so we checked out of our hostel early the next morning and headed to the train station. There we got a little more information, emphasis on little. We made our reservation and stored our bags in the locker, and went out for one last day in the city.

That morning before we had gotten ready to go, I woke up to the 6:30 call to prayer from the minaret on the Blue Mosque. I hadn't woken up to it any previous mornings so it was interesting that I did this time. I wasn't really unhappy. It was quite cool and after it was done I fell back asleep. I wanted to go to the Asian side of the city just to say that I have been to Asia, so we hopped on the ferry and went across, meeting the other two for the last day. Since we arrived early we walked around the city for a while, finding slums and pretty areas alike. We met up with the others right around linch time so I grabbed a snack and we headed off. This morning for breakfast I had eaten two portions. It turned out to be a good choice. We had heard a tale of a fancy district in the hills so we headed that direction. We found it and walked around for a while. I was pleased to get pictures and since the weather was gorgeous, we just meandered around the park. Eventually we got hungry and so we made plans for the rest of the day. We wanted to go on the Bosphorus cruise, but more importantly we wanted food. We didn't find much other than street vendors until we walked around a corner and found a very local place. It was very much off the beaten path and was about as authentic as it could get. No one who worked there spoke English or German, but a customer did. He translated for us, but we were still a little unclear about what we were getting. We knew it was something to do with chicken. But we were okay with just being surprised. 

It was the best surprise ever. It was amazing food. I really have no words for it other than that. We ate the food and then he offered us a complementary tea. As I had previously said, the beverages here are great. We gladly obliged. The bill was considerably less than the day before, and when we left we headed for the boat dock. We found  a cruise that left 40 minutes from when we were there so we found a bench in the sun to sit for a while. It was lovely. At 16 C, I was wearing a thin T-Shirt and was very comfortable, I had packed my jacked away long before. The day was not all perfect because when I went to the water's edge to take some pictures, I dropped a lens cap into the water and it quickly vanished. I was a little upset by this but I wasn't going to let it ruin my day. I wrapped a lens cloth around the lens and rubber banded it to it and buried it deep in my camera bag. 

The cruise came and we found that it was money well spent. At this point it was late afternoon and the sun was dipping low in the sky creating beautiful lighting everywhere. All the couples were out on the deck enjoying the romantic atmosphere. I was out on the deck with all available lenses enjoying the lighting as well. Bridges and mosques were lit up by the setting sun and I couldn't let this moment pass without snapping a few (hundred) pictures.

Back on the main land we walked through the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar one last time. I had about 30 pictures left on my card and used them there as sparingly as I would if I were shooting a roll of film. We ended up back on the water's edge and wanted something to drink and just sit and relax as we waited for the time to head our separate ways. On the main market bridge, similar to the Rialto in Venice, we got hounded by restaurant workers to come to their place. We wanted something less expensive and less…chaotic so we chose a square looking out over the bridge in front and some mosques behind. I got some salep and a basket of pastries from the vendors and we watched the people. I must tell you about salep. It is the most wonderful drink in the world. It is the consistency, and heat, of molten lava, but it tastes fantastic. It is made up of honey, orchid blossom extract, vanilla, milk and a few other things, with cinnamon on the top. For 1 lira, I had to buy it. Since I had it the night before I knew what I was getting into. Best lira spent ever. The pastries were similar to donuts or dumplings. A fluffy goodness covered in honey. I was eating well while watching the people. It was a great way to end a great start of the trip.

*****

We headed to the train station a little early because we still weren't sure what was going on. There I saw something familiar that I didn't expect to see. A crew was setting up film equipment all over the station. Cables for lights running everywhere, jibs and cranes set up, camera crews waiting on the crop and electric department, and the directing team sitting in a back room with the actors. I watched this with interest. It was strange not being a part of it. I wanted to see the differences between the way they ran the program versus the way we do in America. There weren't many.

We figured out that we would have to catch a bus to a train somewhere else because Turkey doesn't do a lot of trains. The bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere that happened to have a train. It all seemed to be a little haphazard. We get to our sleeper car and find it to be pretty janky. Just like I had envisioned things to be. I wasn't disappointed at all, in fact I was quite pleased with the new adventure. I had also never been in a sleeper car so I was stoked to sleep while going across a country. Its funny that I thought I would sleep. The first bit I did, but border control woke us up three times and the ticket man twice. One of the times for passport control, we had to go out into this building with nothing there other than a desk with people wearing the stereotypical Slavic police uniforms. Later in Bulgaria the border police came in and made sure we weren't smuggling people across, took our passports to make sure we were not villainous and then we finally got some sleep.

Our trip to Turkey was awesome. The rest of the trip promises grand adventure into the world of the unknown…eastern Europe. The Bulgarian train ride is not over. It in fact becomes more interesting. To find out more be sure to read my upcoming blog about Bulgaria.