Current Location: Istanbul’s Chillout Cengo Hostel in a funky room with beds enought for 10 people, comfy couches, with a nice breeze entering through the open balcony letting in the sounds of the city as I sit at a table in the middle of the room… A few mins ago two men were playing and singing by a restaurant…
The Buzz Lightyear sheets make it that much better.
and the kicker: I’m alone.
Well, kind of. I guess I should rewind a little:
Spring break starts this Weds for me, but as what seems to have become a norm, I’ve only made it to class on Monday and left for Istanbul today. Turkey has been on my top priority list of places I wanted to visit but I took way too long to plan it and by the time I got serious about it, no one was actually interested or able to go anymore. So I joined it on a trip planned by 3 girls in my program (and 2 people who they know that I won’t until tomorrow). I unfortunately didn’t join in early enough because they booked their lodging already and I had to find my own place- thus I’m alone.
Once we got into the city from the airport the 4 of us were starving so we got some Turkish fast food, which was not all the great and I decided to take a cab home so they wouldn’t have to walk me to my hostel. Both the places we are staying a really close to Taksim Square (the hip, party part of Istanbul according to Rick Steves, my hero) but in opposite directions. The walk shouldn’t have taken more than 10 mins, but it was 10pm and I was alone, so cabbing was the only sensible solution. I may or may not have gotten jipped, it’s hard to tell. You decide:
When I got into the cab, the driver went the wrong way (I google mapped that shit so I knew). He knew no English so communication was hard. Also, he didn’t know where my hostel was- even though it was a few blocks away- kinda fishy. We drove around forever as he asked random cab drivers where this place was (or so I presumed… I couldn’t understand). None of them seemed to know until we finally found someone who told him and I got here. I assumed he would charge me half or something since he drove me around aimlessly but nope, he asked for the full fare.. and I wasn’t about to argue. He seemed harmless, but I’m not stupid. I can’t decide if he genuinely didn’t know where he was going or if he thought “Jackpot!” as a young, clearly American tourist entered his cab.
The hostel is really cool however… the owner is a fun girl who seems to be perfect for a hostel owner and people are “chilling” in the “chill” zone.
I am soo excited for tomorrow as we explore Sultanahmet-Old City on the other side of the Bosphorus. Hagia Sofia, Topkapi Palace and Blue Mosque here I come!
And to think, less than 24 hours ago I was at the Clockhouse in Leuven getting my ass kicked in foosball…
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To be completely honest, my spring break bagan last week when Alex came to visit, seeing as I skipped all my classes that week. I showed him a little around Leuven the first night and then we were off to Paris for 3 days.
3 days in Paris is NOT enough. People of the world who read this blog, remember this and take it to heart.
I had no idea I was going to like Paris as much as I did much, but it is by far the greatest city I have even been to. And no, it’s not some romantic city as people claim it is. I didn’t get that vibe; the vibe I did get was one of bombass-ness. It has sooo much history and something beautiful to see around every corner. We had an amazing hostel -that should be called a hotel as far as I’m concerned- in Montmartre about 3 mins walking distance from the Sacre Coeur:
We walked just about everywhere we could, saw the major sights (climbing the Arch of Triumph provided us w/ the first glimpse of the Eiffel), had coffee in the cafe frequented by the ex-patriot Hemingway, had crapes, cheese, wine, pastries, baguettes - the whole stereotypical french thing - and got to see my roomie Amanda, which was lovely, even though it was quite short both times. We even stumbled across a set of a French film in production by the Pantheon. I hope to will put a nice selection of my pics up on Picasa soon.
And how perfectly French is this pic:
On Weds we took a day trip to Bruges where we got some chocolates from Duman, recommended by none other than Rick Steves. They were def. the best chocolates I’ve has thus far. We also saw a little bit of Brussels that night and stopped by Delirium. We had some muscles too. One of us enjoyed them a lot more than the other
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The next day we headed over to Amsterdam with Pilar and her sister Monica and boyfriend Scott. We stayed on a boat hostel which was pretty sweet. We got the “Heineken Experience” at the Heineken brewery, where we may or may not have stolen a bunch of free beer tokens at the end of the tour. We also got to see the Anne Frank house which was rather somber, but amazing to see. Saturday we stayed in from pure exhaustion and sampled some Belgian beers. Soon it was time for him to pack up and go, but of course he didn’t leave without trying fries, kebabs and crunchy speculoos (yes, I’ve converted from smooth) and a bag full of stolen beer glasses.
March 30, 2010, 5:48pm Comments
