Before I forget what the high feels like, I wanted to write at this normal awake hour of 12am. I enter to win a trip to San Francisco at the daily muse.com to see start-ups even thgh I'm in Europe. I'm thinking about the future but trying to soak up all this present that is almost sleepless and exhausting, but filled with living moments that I'm so thankful to be awake for.
I just returned from Istanbul on Sunday evening, but it feels like minutes ago as my days this week have progressed without stopping. A group of us (Samantha, Joanna, Steven and Catherine) went and met with Anna and Patrick and then of course everyone else that made the trip filled up with new faces, friendly stories, laught, random, small amounts of time. I first stopped in Madrid to visit Christine and Fernando. Both exchanged were spent talking about the past and then with Fernando in his lovely new piso drinking wine and talking politics in Spanish. The next morning I made my way to the airport and we flew Swiss to Istanbul, stopping in Zurich. It was a little taste of that pleasant time that could be had in rich Switzerland. (one day!) we spent a kabillion hours traveling, but marveled at the free chocolate, free food, free views of the Alps provided by Swiss and find our hostel with little trouble. As expected, friendly hostel staff awaited us and we immediately became friends with sakir an Sami who gave us hookah and tea. I ate the best sandwich in the world from a street cart. It's pig intestines, but why bother with ingredients when it's just good anyway. The next morning a guy from Catherine's 8-track playlist showed up and gave us a tour of the city- a decision that would prove so beneficial to our trip. We looked out the window at this posh looking guy with sunglasses and decided to give it a go. He led us around Istanbul, showing us mosques and the gran bazaar. Our 2 full days of sight-seeing honestly melted into one. We enjoyed a long lunch and then caramel hookah in a park and the sun faded and we went to the top of a tower to see the city from afar. Into the evening we made our way back to the hostel and were of course inticed by souvenirs and candy. Before a light dinner, we went to the top of the hostel and Sami treated us to dj hits. It turned into an extreme, sober dance party that I loved. We even made a Harlem shake video and forced Other hostel guests to be apart of it. I will post the final edit. We forced ourselves to eat dinner and resumed dancing which led to being talked into going out which led to meeting more wonderfuls and stepping foot in a rave which felt psychedelic. I'm angry that I can't or won't take the time to put in more details here, but I must go on with this and edit later. Catherine and I awoke with maybe 4 hours of sleep to hit the streets. We missed the morning bit with batu, but started off in A mosque for awhile with people from our hostel. We waited for the other group near the mosque, sipping coffee and I ate Kebab which I never thought I'd like. We took a long journey to the Asia part of turkey. It didn't look Asian as you'd imagine it and there was nothing to see. I think a bit of restlessness led to lots of funny jokes. It made good for group collaboration and going with the flow. When we returned we were almost tempted to rest at the hostel, but thank god we didn't because batu took us to the best part of Istanbul. We saw the modern area filled w merchants and high class restaurants and clubs. We got a glimpse at the cable bridge of Istanbul. Is it one of the few in the world? I'll have to look. We spent too much time buying and buying. I felt giddy over the jewelry. Dinner was in a nice little restaurant that sold us cheese pizza like something anothers which was good for me. We uploaded instagram pics. We smoked a purple cigar that was actually from fort lauderdale and that made me feel stupid. It was a treat for batu. Afterwards, we still kept saying, okay, we're not going to the club. Buttttt we did. We went to maxim first- a great square center filled with tourists and mostly local Turkish people. Batu weaved us in and out of people. I'm proud of myself for being fine with being led and not knowing where we were going to end up because it's so against my OCD nature. So they we were in some local karaoke bar listening to hits from home and hits from abroad, both equally wonderful. After a beer the girls signed up to sing songs that are normal when in Normal circumstances but so much better in this setting. I felt proud and lively and had no inhibitions. Batu had to peel us away so that we could make our journey to the known club that he was so proud of. By the 12am hour most of us were hanging by a thread and exhausted and without ganas to drink or dance. So We sat on a wooden rocking swing and let batu notice the sleep in our eyes. All of us parted ways back to the hostel. I visited its Sami to tell her thank you and to get some sleep. The next morning Catherine and I tried to see the palace but it's size proved impossible to cover in the short amount of time. We did visit the blue mosque which was barely blue, I got my three pashmina scarves, some postcards, a couple of other presents for various recipients. We ate the last free, perfect Turkish breakfast, packed our belongings and commenced the journey home that was not very memorable apart from some dishonest person stealing my precious iPod and nail polish out of my check-on bag. I don't want to go into further ranting or I'll just feel upset.
I haven't spent enough time documenting what all of this feels like, but I get so high off travel. During the moments of no self composure and living in the music or the sights or the awkward language exchanges, my blood rushes to my head. I can't stop smiling. And in retrospect, everything is even more Amazing. The group travel was a fantastic idea. Despite the little bickers here and there, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Despite the sleepiness, getting out of my routine of Seville made coming back into this head-on week was less daunting. I suppose that little lesson is to continually change things up, even when (and it will!) life becomes quite monotonous. Oh but, thanks god! Because I am so thankful for all of this. I'm happy to meet people who open up their arms to foreigners, who guide without judgement or motives and who let me enjoy theirs, and spoil me too. The exchange of cultures, I suppose it is, is the best exchange ever. Bartering for experiences is a million times better than a wad of paper bills in exchange for some Thing that will sit on my desk and collect dust. We're doing this unofficial sharing of our lives and what we know and mostly now I'm just getting to soak in all of Theirs. I feel wrapped up in the love. And it hopefully does and will continue to pressed down on all the evil that is and will be. I want to keep a positive, unscarred outlook on travel and trust in fellow humans. My last post, basically a year ago, was a me filled w a lot of animosity which still lingers now and again.
The details contain the pictures of all of this wonderfulness and I promise to take the time to lay that out for, well, myself, at least!
I just returned from Istanbul on Sunday evening, but it feels like minutes ago as my days this week have progressed without stopping. A group of us (Samantha, Joanna, Steven and Catherine) went and met with Anna and Patrick and then of course everyone else that made the trip filled up with new faces, friendly stories, laught, random, small amounts of time. I first stopped in Madrid to visit Christine and Fernando. Both exchanged were spent talking about the past and then with Fernando in his lovely new piso drinking wine and talking politics in Spanish. The next morning I made my way to the airport and we flew Swiss to Istanbul, stopping in Zurich. It was a little taste of that pleasant time that could be had in rich Switzerland. (one day!) we spent a kabillion hours traveling, but marveled at the free chocolate, free food, free views of the Alps provided by Swiss and find our hostel with little trouble. As expected, friendly hostel staff awaited us and we immediately became friends with sakir an Sami who gave us hookah and tea. I ate the best sandwich in the world from a street cart. It's pig intestines, but why bother with ingredients when it's just good anyway. The next morning a guy from Catherine's 8-track playlist showed up and gave us a tour of the city- a decision that would prove so beneficial to our trip. We looked out the window at this posh looking guy with sunglasses and decided to give it a go. He led us around Istanbul, showing us mosques and the gran bazaar. Our 2 full days of sight-seeing honestly melted into one. We enjoyed a long lunch and then caramel hookah in a park and the sun faded and we went to the top of a tower to see the city from afar. Into the evening we made our way back to the hostel and were of course inticed by souvenirs and candy. Before a light dinner, we went to the top of the hostel and Sami treated us to dj hits. It turned into an extreme, sober dance party that I loved. We even made a Harlem shake video and forced Other hostel guests to be apart of it. I will post the final edit. We forced ourselves to eat dinner and resumed dancing which led to being talked into going out which led to meeting more wonderfuls and stepping foot in a rave which felt psychedelic. I'm angry that I can't or won't take the time to put in more details here, but I must go on with this and edit later. Catherine and I awoke with maybe 4 hours of sleep to hit the streets. We missed the morning bit with batu, but started off in A mosque for awhile with people from our hostel. We waited for the other group near the mosque, sipping coffee and I ate Kebab which I never thought I'd like. We took a long journey to the Asia part of turkey. It didn't look Asian as you'd imagine it and there was nothing to see. I think a bit of restlessness led to lots of funny jokes. It made good for group collaboration and going with the flow. When we returned we were almost tempted to rest at the hostel, but thank god we didn't because batu took us to the best part of Istanbul. We saw the modern area filled w merchants and high class restaurants and clubs. We got a glimpse at the cable bridge of Istanbul. Is it one of the few in the world? I'll have to look. We spent too much time buying and buying. I felt giddy over the jewelry. Dinner was in a nice little restaurant that sold us cheese pizza like something anothers which was good for me. We uploaded instagram pics. We smoked a purple cigar that was actually from fort lauderdale and that made me feel stupid. It was a treat for batu. Afterwards, we still kept saying, okay, we're not going to the club. Buttttt we did. We went to maxim first- a great square center filled with tourists and mostly local Turkish people. Batu weaved us in and out of people. I'm proud of myself for being fine with being led and not knowing where we were going to end up because it's so against my OCD nature. So they we were in some local karaoke bar listening to hits from home and hits from abroad, both equally wonderful. After a beer the girls signed up to sing songs that are normal when in Normal circumstances but so much better in this setting. I felt proud and lively and had no inhibitions. Batu had to peel us away so that we could make our journey to the known club that he was so proud of. By the 12am hour most of us were hanging by a thread and exhausted and without ganas to drink or dance. So We sat on a wooden rocking swing and let batu notice the sleep in our eyes. All of us parted ways back to the hostel. I visited its Sami to tell her thank you and to get some sleep. The next morning Catherine and I tried to see the palace but it's size proved impossible to cover in the short amount of time. We did visit the blue mosque which was barely blue, I got my three pashmina scarves, some postcards, a couple of other presents for various recipients. We ate the last free, perfect Turkish breakfast, packed our belongings and commenced the journey home that was not very memorable apart from some dishonest person stealing my precious iPod and nail polish out of my check-on bag. I don't want to go into further ranting or I'll just feel upset.
I haven't spent enough time documenting what all of this feels like, but I get so high off travel. During the moments of no self composure and living in the music or the sights or the awkward language exchanges, my blood rushes to my head. I can't stop smiling. And in retrospect, everything is even more Amazing. The group travel was a fantastic idea. Despite the little bickers here and there, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Despite the sleepiness, getting out of my routine of Seville made coming back into this head-on week was less daunting. I suppose that little lesson is to continually change things up, even when (and it will!) life becomes quite monotonous. Oh but, thanks god! Because I am so thankful for all of this. I'm happy to meet people who open up their arms to foreigners, who guide without judgement or motives and who let me enjoy theirs, and spoil me too. The exchange of cultures, I suppose it is, is the best exchange ever. Bartering for experiences is a million times better than a wad of paper bills in exchange for some Thing that will sit on my desk and collect dust. We're doing this unofficial sharing of our lives and what we know and mostly now I'm just getting to soak in all of Theirs. I feel wrapped up in the love. And it hopefully does and will continue to pressed down on all the evil that is and will be. I want to keep a positive, unscarred outlook on travel and trust in fellow humans. My last post, basically a year ago, was a me filled w a lot of animosity which still lingers now and again.
The details contain the pictures of all of this wonderfulness and I promise to take the time to lay that out for, well, myself, at least!
