Istanbul! Constantinople! Its been a long time gone...

Well, I have had the Istanbul/Constantinople song stuck in my head for awhile now. But hey! I am in Istanbul!

My flights were great. No idea why my airline had a 1.6/10 rating! Seats were really comfy AND I got a small meal on both flights. No delays to be seen.

I got to practice a lot of my Russian too. At the St Petersburg airport, I spent a decent amount of time with this old Russian woman. She was also heading to Kiev. I made an awkward social blunder though; I asked her if she was going to Kiev for vacation and she almost started to cry. Her mother had just died the day before and she was going to Kiev to prepare all of the funeral things. Oops.

She was very nice and patient with me, and we were able to have a complete conversation. The things I did not understand so well, we were still able to figure out with some hand motions and more questions. Her mother turned 100 four months, and apparently was in great health so her dying came as a big shock.

Her daughter was in France at a dog competition. I am not exactly sure what kind of dog it is, but I do know that its very small and very fluffy. I am guessing a Pomeranian.

We talked some more about her dogs. They have four, and from the breeds mentioned, I think that they show all of them. She said that she has a backyard for the dogs and lets them run free. We then started talking about the problems of having dogs in St Petersburg and having them stuck in the apartments.


Then in Kiev, I met a Ukrainian woman around my age, I think a bit older who was also heading to Istanbul. We met in line for the bathroom, the best place to meet someone because there is so much time to talk hee hee. Our flight was boarding but there were several of us in line waiting for the bathroom.

We started talking because a girl tried to cut the line even though most of us had been waiting for 15 min. Her excuse: oh but my flight to Istanbul is boarding! The woman who was at the front of the line said that she was also on that flight. And so did the woman behind her, and behind her, and so on.

The woman in front of me had given a snort at the other girl and from that we started talking (in Russian!). We talked about what she thought of Kiev compared to St Petersburg and Istanbul, and just general information about ourselves like what I study, what I was doing in St Petersburg and what I will be doing in Istanbul. It was lovely.

Then on the way to the plane (we have to take a little bus from the boarding gate that takes us to the door of plane) I met a Canadian. He had a Northface backpack and a shirt that said Vancouver on it. We talked for a bit.

I landed alright in Istanbul, got my visa and did all of that customs/passport control stuff. And things got a little nerve wracking for me. Well, I knew that we were supposed to meet at the exit Garanti Bank, but I had misread, or assumed incorrectly where at the exit we were supposed to meet. And since my friend Efe had not mentioned how he was getting to the airport, for some reason I had assumed a car.

So I was outside for almost three hours, slowly growing more panicked. Efe was going to pick me after his work, and he said that he would be there at 6:30. I was outside ready to go by 5:45.

The taxi drivers were beginning to recognize me from their constant loops of the pick up point. Yeah, it was awkward. He had given me his phone number, but when I checked my email in Kiev, I saw that he had sent a message telling me that his phone was dying, and probably wouldn't work. He gave his friend's number just in case. Of course, he did not know that his friend had run out of credit on his phone that morning.


So of course when I tried to call either number, I was just directed to voice mail. I did not know where he lives, any of his friend's names and numbers, where I could stay (had not done any back up research) and had no idea what I would do when night came. And as I was no longer in St Petersburg, the sun was already starting to set.

At 8:20, my name came on over the speakers, asking me to come to the information desk. Which is good, because the police had come over and started to ask me why I was still there. And their English was not very good, so it involved lots of staring and hand gestures.

While I had been waiting outside, protectively hovering over my things, Efe was going crazy inside. We were probably 100 meters away from each other the entire time. He had checked outside, but since I was a bit further out from the door (because I was waiting in the lane for pick-ups, not just taxis and hotel buses) he did not see me.

He had asked the police about me and all of these other things, but because of security reasons they could not tell him if I had passed through security of not. So finally he went to the Information Desk, and they called my name on the speakers. I had been hoping that he would do that.

I do not know if I have ever been so relieved to see somebody. We took the metro, two buses and a ferry to get to where we are staying. We are staying at Efe's friend's house. There are two couches, so its pretty comfy.

One of the coolest things about Istanbul is that it is in both Europe and Asia. Currently I am in Asia. I have crossed from Europe to Asia a few times already.

I have also been mistaken for being Turkish a few times already. I was definitely never mistaken for being Russian, so this is a nice change.

Heading to a palace today. Have not taken too many photos yet because I have mainly only walked around at night.

More should be coming soon!