Last night in Istanbul

Hmmm, I started typing up a serious reflexion on Istanbul (where I am now) and how it is the melting pot between the west and east and how eariler today I was hearing the muslim chanting from all the mosques outside while inside the owner to the hostel was watching an episode of "How I met you mother" and blah blah blah. But the internet erased everything I wrote so instead I will write about something a little bit lighter...

Well tonight started off kind of sad since the guy I have been travel with for the past three weeks, James, was about to leave to fly back to Edinburgh after a short stop over in Sofia, Bulgaria. James and I met in Cluj Napoca, Romania one night when it seemed that we were the only people in the hostel wanting to go get a beer. Now a quick note about meeting people in hostels, there is a special phenomenon that happens among people who are all travelling. Travelling friendships do not work along the same timeline as perhaps a normal friendship would if you were back at home. No, people who are travelling are naturally in a more open, relaxed mindset willing, and wanting to meet new people from all around the world, not the mention that they are in a foreign land so they have no other friends to hang out with.

So it normally works out like this, after hanging with a group of people for one night you are comfortable with each other and end up having a great time! By the second night you are all proper friends. The third night of going out, everyone is best friends and it's just like hanging out with a group of your oldest friends from back home. Well James and I were hangout non-stop for the past three weeks together, and we got along really well, so it was sad that we were finally splitting up.

Luckily as we were wandering the streets waiting until James needed to leave to catch his bus we ran into a local Turkish guy named Mehmet. We first met Mehmet when we arrived in Istanbul, he was kind enough to show us all the way to our hostel and he didn't even want to sell us a carpet afterwards (everyone in Istanbul wants to sell you a carpet). Somehow, we ran into Mehmet everyday afterwards all around town, which in a town of 17 million people is quite impressive.

We ended up spending the next hour at our favorite Nargile bar located behind the Blue Mosque, laughing, having fun with the waiters and meeting more locals. Turkish hospitality is really amazing!



(right) Mehmet
(below)James and I at a Nargile bar