The Water Bottle Story

As a precursor to this story, it is good to know that I have a reputation for getting free food for some reason.  Call it the starving-baby-looking-Asian-girl-affect? The most well-known place where I am a regular recipient is Cheeseboard, back at Berkeley. But okay, that is not the point.
This story takes place on our last night in Istanbul, which was definitely my craziest. After our night of debauchery, we decide it is time for some midnight snacks. At some point, I end up with warm chest nuts from the stalls in my hand. Not sure how that happened. Okay. I eat the chestnuts and they are yummy and apparently they were free because the stall was closing (?) or we were talking to them (?) and they were being nice (?). Point is, this inflates my alread already-inflated ego and all the sudden, I decide to promise Julie that I would get her a free hamburger from the burger joint. My memory is a little patchy, but it all goes down kind of like this:

Me: Hello! We are American and this is our last night and we have no money! Free hamburger?
Worker: What? You want 1 hamburger?
Me: Yes but we don't want to pay we are Amerian and this is our last night and we have no money!!
Worker: What?
Me: Okay, here is my credit card!!!
Worker: Okay
Me: Then can I have that water bottle?
Worker: Okay, you want one water bottle.
Me: OKAY THANKS!!!
Worker: What?
Me: OKAY YOU GAVE THIS TO ME I AM TAKING THIS NOW OKAY BYEEEE~ (: (: (:

And there is the story of how I stole a water bottle from the most popular burger restaurant in Istanbul.

Breakfast in Istanbul

I think breakfast is my favorite meal in Istanbul. Check out what a typical morning meal looks like, it is so delicious! You have strawberry and fig jam to put on your bread (it looks like the loafs you see Aladdin stealing in the Disney movie! I hope that isn’t racist…) Sun-dried olives, *eggs (scrambled with cheese or sunny side up with basil), three different types of cheese that you can put on your bread or eat whole (they all taste great with the olives in my opinion), peanut butter, nutella, this AMAZING hazelnut spread that is crunchy and so delicious, and a milky cream cheese butter spread (so good with the jam!). I may have survived the freshman 15 but the European 30 is coming on strong and fast. Can’t say I mind too much though…yum yum yum. 

Istanbul Kindness

 When Julie’s boots finally gave out for good, we were leaving the mosque and it was raining outside. I was waiting by her as she sat on the steps outside the mosque, struggling to find some way to keep her boots together at least until we found the nearest shoe shop. A woman who was about to enter the mosque sees us and immediately approaches Julie. Without being able to speak or understand a single word of English, she takes Julie’s shoes and starts yanking on the zippers trying to help us fix it. Something about this really stayed with us. It makes me see that kindness must be a universal language, and it is very beautiful to witness. The woman stayed with us for at least ten minutes before she too realized that Julie’s boots were a totally lost cause.

If complete moments could be captured like photographs, then I would want to take this memory and frame it permanently by my door so I could look at it every day. 

Making Friends in Istanbul

 Making friends in this city is so easy it is practically formulaic. We start with a night in Takism Square, supplemented by drinks (Crucial step; not optional!). Follow the sound of the loudest music, or whatever song sounds catchiest, and proceed to enter. Proceed to buy more drinks because you are in Europe and it is legal and fun. Then, when we find a spot to situate ourselves in, we observe our surroundings. There is always one group near you that seems to having the time of their life. It is easy to spot them because they will be dancing the most vigorously, like they really just do not give any cares in the world. It’s quite contagious, actually. They draw you in with their boisterous cheering and intensive picture taking. Before we know it, Julie and I start dancing just as wildly as them, almost as some sort of initiation, and each time it works because Turkish people are so friendly. All the sudden, their friends are our friends. And their dance moves start becoming our dance moves. Just like that, Julie and are linking arms in a gigantic circle of new Turkish friends, screaming to Turkish songs that we do not understand but somehow still love. It makes me laugh to wonder how all these people will look the next morning when they peruse their camera photos and see these two foreigners in all their pictures. At least we can say we left our American mark in Istanbul! 

Graves

On our taxi ride to breakfast this morning, I noticed that the driver muted the radio as we drove by a graveyard. I thought this was so interesting because whenever I pass by graveyards, whether it is via car or walking, I always turn off whatever music I am listening to. No one ever taught me to do this, and I've never seen anyone else do it before until now. My english teacher from middle school taught us about "common grounds," and how they unite seemingly different groups of people.  So today I discovered an unexpected common ground I have with an Istanbul taxi driver. Just something that made me marvel.

Exploring Turkey Day 1: AKA Julie's Woes and Rolling with Punches

Julie and I woke up surprisingly early (9 am!!) and were out of the house by 10. Since our hosts had to go to work, our entire day was free for exploration. What characterized our day was mindless wondering, so to speak. And it was very wonderful. We start our day by walking into this "delightfully tacky" treehouse cafe restaurant for some coffee and breakfast. It is only a few blocks from where we are staying. Afterwards, a bus and ferry ride take us to the Europe side of Turkey, where all the historical sites are. From entering a random mosque (one of the many, sprinkled throughout the city), to spontaneous shoe shopping, and then finding ourselves in the spice bazar, before somehow finding the historical sites like the hagia sofia and cisterns, it was such a great day. But what made it perfect was the fact that we weren't on a dead-set, touristy driven mindset. Instead, we were actually exploring the city, letting our feet carry us to whatever destination we would chance upon next. This to me, is the ideal type of travel. And it is just as authentic and rewarding as I imagined it would be. We ended the night by rejoining our hosts for a dinner at home, followed by some clubbing in Takism Square, AKA the center hub of Istanbul. The square is thriving with heavy beats and clubs/restaurants everywhere. Despite being party central, the square retains a distinct Turkish flavor. So think of it as the NYC equivalent to Turkey, but with better music and much more interesting street life. Oh, by the way, buying alcohol without getting carded is so so satisfying. Because even 15 year old Asians are legally allowed to drink in Turkey. Obviously, I am finally where I belong.

Now, onto the subject of #juliewoes and rolling with punches.

First, when Julie and I first enter the mosque we must take off our shoes and cover our heads. Later as we head out, Julie's boots completely break and have to be tied with HAIR TYES. Talk about gheeeetto. We then proceed to find shoe shops for my poor friend who happens to be blessed with abnormally large feet. Finally, we find a store that provides shoes in her size. And they happen to be walking boots that are perfect for the weather. But THIS GIRL proceeds to complain about them non-stop. NONSTOP. She even tells the oh-so-tragic-story of her poor American-girl self who has to bare the burden of wearing these "super hideous construction person" boots around Europe to every stranger (AKA: guys trying to pick us up???) we meet. Since I know Julie is reading this now, I don't feel bad at all about saying this on my blog since she knows deep down this is all true.
Later at the spice bazar, this girl goes on a near-death-trip from sampling a "gummy" that turns out to be laden with nuts. Did I mention she is deathly allergic to nuts?
Sooo, we are basically walking disasters. Or more accurately, Shit Bok shows. And by "we," I totally mean Julie Brown. #ILOVEYOUJULIE #welovehashtags #insidejokes
Luckily for us, Turkish hospitality (and possibly the us-being-cute-girls part) once again saved us. At the stall next door to the near-death-crime-scene was a tea booth where the owner eagerly started showing us samples of tea to smell. By the way, they all smelled absolutely delicious. But somehow we got around to telling him that Julie was having an allergic reaction, and with no further questions asked he took us into his stall and started feeding us tea and water. He was so kind! Even though he was very blatantly flirting with me, for some reason the blatancy made it less creepy. Admittedly too, some his lines were cheesy but endearing ("You study health? Can you help examine me, right here? At my heart?"). The entire encounter ended with me planting my first Turkish kiss onto the cheeks of the flirtatious but very nice tea-stall owner. The important thing though, is that Julie is alive. So, yay for happy endings. *

*NOTE: Julie was also suffering from the craziest sore throat the entire day. By the time we were riding the ferry back, she wasn't too un-simular to the granny from snow white (but prettier). Still, in all honesty she was a real trooper  despite her body not being in her favor that day.

Some Random Things I Love about Istanbul

• Fluent Turkish is such a smooth but textured language 
• -that Turkey is divided into two sides: the Asia and the Europe sides. It's the same thing I love about Shanghai, except cooler
• Riding the ferry is not a tourist attraction but a normalized means of transportation that also takes the bus card for payment
• Tea. All the time. 
• Clubbing/bar music -so superior to the US in every way
• I love how Turkey is not littered with Western chain establishments. During my time here so far I've seen maybe 5 fastfood restaurants from the U.S. 
• Real Turkish coffee
• "Pasta" in Turkish means "birthday cake" 
• One thing I am so in love with is the color of all the buildings that line the streets on the Europe side. They have this frayed- pastel look that is old, but authentic and vibrant at the same time. They completely add to the entire environment and atmosphere I think.
• Making Turkish friends at the clubs 
• When it rains in Berkeley, it makes me miserable. Yet on and off showers in Turkey for some reason are perfectly manageable and do not subtract anything from the entire experience, even though I forgot to bring an umbrella.
• Turkish streets are like mazes. There are narrow streets of stone that weave into another in an endless pathway that will eventually lead you throughout the entire city. Each street is lined with different cafes, shops, restaurants and what have you. Some are especially intimate, but no less busy or populated. Even the smallest side streets that are the most easy to miss, end up being just as bustling as some of the major roads. Forgive me for not being able to adequately describe the entire environment or do it any justice. 
• Winter season has made the tourist spots less crowded and therefore much more enjoyable. Rather than being shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers from around the world, we get to marvel at all the sites we visit and take our time absorbing everything we see. 
• The "allzah" religious music plays throughout the entire city via speakers during the times of prayer. Although not Muslim, something about the religion being so deeply permeated into society adds so much more meaning
• 
  

Exploring the Europe Side of Istanbul

• Bus /ferry ride success
• Amazing mosque
• Cut and paste of old with contemporary city in mosque 
• julie breaks her shoes
• we  buy julie new shoes and she fucking hates them
• walking around / best kind of exploring
• we go to spice bazarre
• julie gets nut allergy
• tea guy ishmail 
• breaking guys hearts and being called jennifer lopez
• random guy on street hitting on julie
• walking walking walking, come back to apt for another home cookde meal
• go out and drink and party
• tashim square is the fucking best
• great music and clubing and people
• funfunfun 

Our Turkish Hosts

Not having actually been anywhere yet, the people of Istanbul have already showed us what a lovely country Turkey truly is.
Our hosts here are extremely kind. After showing up so late due to us being stupid and American and lost, we were ushered into an adorable, cozy apartment and treated to a delicious, authentic home-cooked meal. Julie and I are sharing a tiny room with two couches, and our hosts provide us with literally everything: sheets, food, towels, blankets, you name it. Oh, and this all comes at no cost. They make us feel so at home and it is hard to describe that kind of kindness in words. But it is something to really marvel, like a unique gem I've never seen before.
Our main host is named Kazim, but he lives with 2 other mates and they're all great guys. One of the guys, Ido, is literally a tan version of Daniel Radcliff. It's pretty mind-blowing and quite fantastic.  Kazim is super well travelled and a true sweetheart. It's amazing how complete "strangers" can spend the night having the most interesting conversations. And his photography speaks for itself. The pictures of everywhere he has been are all over his room and they are breathtaking. I hope I can do the places I visit justice with some decent shots, but that may be a "long shot" HA HA, get it? (Sorry, that may be the jetlag talking).
After dinner, we spent the rest of the night drinking Turkish black tea, conversing, playing with Muslim Allah beads, listening to Kazim play accordion and clarinet (is there some law of life that just dictates all Europeans to be so much cooler and more interesting than us? Is is genetic??), planning out details for what Julie and I should do tomorrow, and just hanging out.
So yeah, you can say things are already going swimmingly. Tomorrow will be our first official day "out in the town" exploring the sites that Istanbul has to offer, so maybe I should try and get some sleep in my second little Istanbul "home." (:

We Arrive in Istanbul and it is not Taken 2

Finally landed in Istanbul and am safe and sound and snuggly in my host’s apartment (more on my host later). Getting here though, is another story. I landed in Turkey at 4:27 pm, slightly earlier than scheduled, and expected to find Julie outside my gate all smiles, ready for us to embark on our travels. Of course, she was not there. And the airport has no wifi, so I had no means of contacting her. Welcome to Istanbul! Commence immediate panic attack! At this point I am trying my best to keep my wits about me. Get myself past customs with a fake semblance of calm while neurotically checking my phone for wifi, and alas, there she is, my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (passport check). I have never felt so relieved to see a brown haired white person in my entire life. From then, I thought, all is well. As long as we found each other, whatever happens, we will figure it out. WELL, “figuring out” how to get from the airport to our host’s apartment ended up taking 5 hours. Yeah, we got it aaallll figured out.

Long story (a mistaken taxi ride, multiple friendly stranger encounters, lots of awkward language barriers, an emergency starbucks-tervention, a long bus ride, and a lot of walking around the same street) short, we made it. And in the process we discovered how friendly the Turkish population is!

So after months of our “strategic, detail-oriented planning,” we still end up being stupid bumbling American girls who have no idea where they are going. Great. But if there is any good thing about Taken 2 being made into an actual movie (I mean seriously, the plotline alone is…questionable…), it is that now, whenever we majorly fck up we can say, “hey, at least we were not kidnapped and sold into sex trafficking and had to be rescued by our dad only to have to later rescue him when he gets taken in Istanbul.” Half glass full (of delicious Turkish tea), eh?