a n o t h e r s h o r t s t o r y

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

çanakkale

iiiiiiiii am leaving for babakale tmrw ya ya ya!
yannis, that guy from GARP, called me today (to my surprise & happiness!) and since hes going to pass by çanakkale when driving to babakale anyway, he can & will pick me up at ~1pm. (which also means free ride again yay (=)

and finally i will go to GARP, im so happy.

çanakkale is a sweet city, not that big for turkey (~75.000) and not too much to do, but with a beautiful view on the dardanelles. i had an amazing view when i was visiting the gallipoli peninsula (gelibolu), 20mins away from çanakkale by ferry and where the gallipoli campaign (çanakkale savaşları) took place during WWI. one local cser took me with his scooter, so it was a perfect way to explore the island i guess. [edit] there are memorial places all over the island, an impressive place. its hard to imagine that sth like that happened, i mean in general. but gallipoli is a good place, all nationalities there are buried together, in "friendship & peace" how they like to say it. and they are taking care of the place very much, flowers everywhere, plaques on all the important spots, many information about what has happened. so despite the history its a beautiful, peaceful quiet place. every year on 25th april theres also the so-called ANZAC day to commemorate the dead (very special day for australians, theyre coming en masse). [/edit]

i also went to troy (truva) of course, funnily enough with one of those germans i met in istanbul. [edit] theres not much to say about it. theres little left (of course). it definately was worth the trip (4YTL one-way, but 15YTL entrance |P), but still it would have been better to have a guide for that. [/edit]

other than that i got to know a realy nice russian girl and her husband, started more serious turkish-studying, learned a tiny tiny lil bit of trad. turkish dance and finally had time for myself (and for reading, yeah!). loved to tell u guys more about it, but its 4am already and ıll go to bed now. i think ill catch a cold soon, greetings from mr. headache & ms. sore throat...hopefully ill be able to finish this post soon, adding more details and pictures of course.
but well see, GARP is lying ahead of me (=

gnight!

[edit]

the trojan horse which was built for the movie "troy"

sweet çanakkale

gallipoli (gelibolu)

troy (truva)

[/edit]

Sunday, April 05, 2009

bursa

so on 05th april i left istanbul at 4 in the morning.
sb i met on the last cs gathering in kadiköy (asian side) had to leave for bursa for work, so he proposed to give me a lift since hes gonna take the car anyway. before that he fetched me and took me to bosporus university, where an amazing view on istanbul was waiting for us. i think if i lived in the dormitory of such a university, id definately go out every night to enjoy the view. ur looking on the bosporus bridge from afar, all these lights and only dimly visible buildings, nothing moves except for the tiny little white-red headlights & the leaves. and the only thing which is keeping you from entering complete, peaceful silence is the distant honking - remembering you that theres still an outside world.
well okay, so much for that. only tried to give u a slight idea =P

alrighty, so i stayed 5 days in bursa.
its a nice city in general, but nothing too special to see when ur a "real" tourist (or at least u wouldnt stay for 5 days then). it was difficult to find a host in bursa at first (bursa is a city full of students and as there was the final exam week coming up many ppl had to study), but then i changed couches 2times, the first change only to the friends of my first host tho. it was a pleasant stay; i went to university twice (and i gotta admit that i was missing some educational institutions a lil bit =P), visited a really small, charming mosque, saw the whirling dervishes! & also went to a german lesson together with my two second hosts! (=

in comparison to istanbul bursa is a really little city (only 2.5mio instead of 16mio =P), so accordingly the city looks slightly different. i arrived at about 7 in the morning, so not many ppl around, it was grey & cloudy and i was just thinking "whaaaaaa tf???!" i got so used to (and also got to like to prob...) the crowded streets, the honking, the density, the hustle...i was scared of & felt a lil bit uncomfortable with the weird green spaces inbetween the buildings...(but in fact they were weird. since there is so much space it seemed like the buildings were built just wherever ppl felt like it..."scattered" is the right term i guess =P)

the bus ride to çanakkale (about 4 1/2h, 30YTL with "kamil koç") was uneventfully, but still i enjoyed it since it was the first time i really had time on my own. and besides, i like bus rides, even the long ones. im small, so i dont have any problems with my legs (or rather my legs dont have any problems) and its relaxing to simply look out of the window & enjoy the view, everythings constantly moving.
so thats it i guess, enjoy the pictures.

you see...

my first two hosts making dinner for me yehaw! =D (ive never seen sth like that before, 4 men cooking together, so sweet! (; )

in front of the karagöz & hacivat (main characters of the trad. turkish shadow play) museum. my 3rd host on the right handside

the yeşıl cami / green mosque - small but so stunning in its own way, so much more authentic!

beyond belief - 20minutes non-stop whirling...

men on the ground, women above =P

last weeks & days in istanbul

geez, im so lagging behind.

almost a month has passed since my last entry...but oh well, its not like ur not used to this kind of behaviour...=P
anyway, here are my last weeks & days in istanbul in a kind of summary:

*on friday, 20th, after we came back from our trip to the islands i met my first couchsurfing host. we met in a bar really close to the hostel, had a lil chat (in german =P) etc.
although his overall situation was a lil bit difficult he nevertheless was really caring, he took me for a walk on sunday (starting from kurtuluş, the area where he lived), told me a lot of stuff about turkish life and finally also introduced me to my second host (= so regarding my general experiences with turkish men at that time (not good |P) i was really lucky with him, had a good start into cs-life yap!

*moved to my second host on monday, 23th, beşiktaş.
we got along really really well with each other, talking alot about everything actually, went shopping together for her new work (at the british embassy [!]) yeah! xD and going out of course; sometimes together, sometimes not (= so it was a really healthy relationship, i didnt feel pressured about spending 24h with her and neither did she, i felt home at her home.
doing the usual tourist-stuff but also experiencing normal every-day life in istanbul i didnt notice that i ended up spending full 2 weeks at her place. when searching for a host i was going with the males first since i find them to be more easy-going, but i really hope to stay in contact with that woman (=

*i didnt start doing "serious" sight-seeing until 21st march. what i saw:

sultan ahmed / blue mosque (sultanahmed camii)
basilica cistern (yerebatan sarayı / sarnıcı)
hagia sophia (aya sofya)
grand bazaar (kapalı çarsı)
turkish & islamic museum (türk ve islam eserleri müzesi)
istanbul modern
topkapı palast (topkapı sarayı)

apart from the cistern and the bazaar i found everything very interesting & impressive. the cistern was nice, but it didnt really give me anything and the bazaar...well, maybe i didnt find it too impressive as ive already seen sth like that in beijıng (but [against my expectations] the salesmen were definately much less hassling than in beijıng!). hagia sophia was f*****cking impressive, but still i think 20YTL are too much (is it contradicting...? Oo) topkapı was also 20YTL, but its huuuuge inside and you can spend a lot more time in there than in the sophia. when leaving the palast in the direction of the archaeology museum there is this really nice & big park. i definately recommend going there for relaxing after the tour!

*went out quite a lot (and became better in drinking i guess xD) and met up with new ppl. a freaky spanish guy, many german-speaking turks, germans |P, weird americans, rasta men & women...(=
the club "araf" (in so-called nevizade) for dancing is reaaaally nice, theyre playing a good mix of jazz, 70s, funk, reggae, rock, balkan beats and of course turkish traditional & modern music. ppl say its a real tourist place there, but still, love(d) it! i became a fan of turkish traditional music, hope to bring back home a bunch of good artists (= also "nayah" is a good place for live music, will cost u 10YTL tho.

attended 3 offıcial cs-gatherings and 1 unoffıcial one. the first 2 meetings havent been too interesting, 90% (turkish) guys and so many freaks! >> but the last one (on the asian side - kadiköy) was really good, decent men who really were just interested in having a good chat & fun. at that one i met the person who gave me a free ride to bursa (=

[edit] that unofficial one was organised by girls from the austrian-highschool in istanbul. she just send random msgs to travellers in istanbul between 18-24yrs, but in the end we all ended up talking in german to each other. we were a group of 7 ppl, 3 from highschool, 3 germans (two other guys who were born around cologne as well! |P) and one "ordinary" turkish guy, who used to live in stuttgart for 1 year...well...yah, germans are EV-ER-Y-WHERE! no kidding. "good" or "bad"?...well, anyway |P it was good & interesting to get to know turkish ppl who were that interested in austria/germany.
walked around the city, ate, talked and later at night seh germans went out drinking & clubbing together with other turkish ppl (livemusic and afterwards reggea = fun fun fun!) so that again was another coming-home-at-6-day...=P [/edit]

*one of my walks through istanbul ended in the northern part of the city: ortaköy.
the center is nice & small, much less touristy & hectic than sultanahmet area, with lots of small antique & jewelry shops (wack! -and afaik also selling real stuff =P). except the noble hotels and huge universities on the way (i also wanna have a university by the sea!!! *__*) the walking route was not too exciting, but still its worth the walk!
also the street from istiklal street leading down to the galata tower (galipdede caddesi?) is really worth seeing. alternative shops with more charm, little cafes...

and now pictures finally, juhey!