At 1am on Tuesday I finally landed in Istanbul. I was fighting off the urge to sleep most of the flight so that I could better adjust to the local time. Once on the ground I found a cab and it was off to my hotel. I chose this particular hotel because it was cheap and close to the airport. Turns out I made a rather large miscalculation on what close to the airport actually is. After a quite pricy 30 minute cab ride I arrived at the hotel and settled in.
Its funny how I could barley stay awake on the plane but as soon as I got to a bed I could not fall asleep. With the aid of another Ear Wolf podcast I finally fell asleep around 2:30am. Most of the hotels and hostels in Turkey offer complementary breakfast. My hotel was no exception and had a large spread of all sorts of things I had never seen before. I neglected to take a picture of the buffet but this is what I consumed.
I played it somewhat safe. This can be attributed to the fact I am a somewhat picky eater but also because I was worried about the stability of my stomach. The night before when I got in a had a rather large glass of the hotel tap water. The next morning I repeated this process however this time the lights were on...
I don't know if I’m experiencing a placebo effect or I have a parasite in my intestine but my stomach has not been 100% since. If my postings abruptly end you can probably attribute it to me being violently ill and throwing up various meals in front of a Turkish hospital. After breakfast I took another costly ride to the airport and attempted to find my domestic flight. I probably could have tried to figure out the bus/train system but I really just wanted to make sure I didn't miss my flight.
The domestic terminal of Ataturk Airport was very easy to navigate. I was able to get my ticket and move through security without any problems. The flight was a short one hour trip and they even managed to serve lunch and drinks in that small window of time. I forgot what it was like to have food on every flight regardless of distance. There was no entertainment other than the longest flight security video I have ever seen. It stared a few stars from Manchester United including Wayne Rooney and his fugly fat head. They were attempting to be funny and wacky but it came off forced and weird. I found an english verson of it online:
If you think that was bad the version I watched was twice as long because every scene was shown a second time in English after the Turkish version ran. And while we are on the topic of soccer, this was the restaurant outside of the window of my Istanbul hotel... No thanks.
Once we landed I went to the train station to try to figure out how to get to Selcuk. This is the portion of my trip I stole from my friend Peter (who you will remember from my Japan posts) who was here just last week. I ripped it off so badly I'm even staying at the same hostel. Its unfortunate we missed each other by such a short window but that’s how these things go. It was clear once I got to Izmir that no one spoke very much English. I managed to purchase my ticket by pointing at the city name on my hotel address. This technique also works well with photo menus.
I boarded the train and settled in so I could relax during the one hour trip. Unfortunately once arriving at the first stop I was informed that I was at the end of the line and I had to exit the train. This obviously did not take anywhere close to the hour I was told to expect so I suddenly realized I must have screwed up at some point. I exited the train and went to the station entrance to attempt to get a security guard for assistance. Lucky for me the guard did not want anything to do with me and pretended like I wasn’t there. I walked back up to the platform and found a more helpful worker who pointed to a different platform after seeing my blank expression after he finished his long Turkish rambling.
I took the underground tunnel to the other side and as I reached the platform the train shut its doors and left without me. The helpful guard shouted something from across the tracks and this other man repeated it to me telephone style. Having again no idea what was said I just nodded and sat down. I ended up finding a schedule for the train I needed to take and learned the next train would be arriving in an hour and a half. This was unfortunate because this meant I would now be arriving in Selcuk past sundown equipped with a hand drawn map I made from Google maps earlier in the day.
As I waited for train number two this older Turkish couple sat next to me on the bench and began talking to me in their native tongue. Even after it had been established I had no idea what they were saying they continued on. Smile and nod. They were both very nice and offered me a piece of their pastry and part of their chocolate bar. The man then gestured at me appearing to ask if I wanted to get a drink with him. I tried to accept his offer but it was lost in translation and he just smiled and sat back down. They eventually departed for their train and waved goodbye as I sat waiting for mine.
After what seemed like a century my train finally arrived and the ride went pretty smoothly. I was worried that since I had switched trains that I would need a new ticket which I obviously didn't purchase. A ticket taker did come through the cabin and visions of my honky ass in Turkish prison rushed through my head. Oddly enough he just walked down the aisles announcing something I couldn’t understand and didn’t collect any tickets. I still have no idea if I paid for the full fare or not.
Once in Selcuk I pulled out my hand drawn map and was actually able to find the hostel with little trouble. The town is small but busy. The people seem to be considerably friendlier than those in Istanbul.
The hostel is located off of one of the main roads in a residential looking area. All of the buildings kind of look like the b-roll footage Fox News runs anytime they a story about the middle east comes up. My room pretty much looks like what I expected a classic Turkish room to look like. Weather it is accurate or not is beyond me.
After dropping off my stuff I found a little Turkish restaurant in an alley and did my 'order what sounds coolest in a foreign language' trick (there were no pictures for pointing). I do not remember the name of what I got but it sounded neat. It was chicken mixed with vegetables in a tomato base with white bread over the dish for grabbing at the goods. It was pretty good but I think I should have gone with the kabalbs.
I’m off to Ephesus for the whole day tomorrow. It will be nice to stay in a city for more than one night. Then its back to the trains. Ill leave you with popular Turkish uses for ketchup.
