Day 1

Yesterday, I finally arrived in Istanbul. I flew from Newark, NJ to Frankfurt, Germany to Istanbul, Turkey. I was a bit worried about delays since there was a bomb threat on a Pakistani airplane Wednesday morning and the plane had to make an emergency landing at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul (where I would be arriving soon after). Luckily, no bomb was found. And my flights were on time and went smoothly. However, I did not take this incident as a particularly good sign for the start of my journey abroad.  But as I’ve been slowly learning, things usually work out. And if they don’t work out, well then they don’t. What can you do?

A driver picked me up from the airport, and shuttled me along with a few other passengers across the city to our various destinations. Of course I was last. By the time I got out of the trolley-like van vehicle it was dark outside and I felt like throwing up because that driver was a scary, badass, twisted mother-driver. Usually I sit at the front of trolley-van-buses (wow, I really don’t know what to call this car. Maybe “car”?) so I don’t get motion sickness, but I quickly learned my mistake when I wished I couldn’t see all the small children he was about to run over.

After I was abruptly dropped off kicked out by the driver at the curb in front of my hostel, a kind man who, thank god spoke English ushered me inside. I really thought English was the universal language until today. It seems like people speak everything but English here. Another man who works at the hostel asked me if I spoke Turkish, Russian, French, Spanish, and even Japanese (which I actually do speak) before he asked if I spoke English. Anyway, the hostel turned out to be exactly what I thought it was going to be – nice, clean, quiet, and comfortable. It is just what I needed.

This blog entry is getting really long and diary-like, so I’ll try to keep the rest short. I walked to Istiklal Street, one of the most famous pedestrian walkways in the city, for dinner (chicken and noodles - yummy!) and walked around a bit afterwards. Everyone I met was really friendly and excited to practice English with me (again, where are all the real English-speakers at?).  Then I walked back and wrote a lot of e-mails.

Okay, it’s time for bed. I promise my blog entries will never be this long again. Honestly, I’m in a foreign country where I know no one and I had a lot of time on my hands this evening… And I’m a loser, I know.

One more thing I forgot to say. From what I’ve seen so far, Istanbul is a beautiful city, and I’m quite excited to start really seeing it!