Pictures

Happy 4th!!  Here are some Istanbul pictures ...

Feels Like Home

I got back to Istanbul last night and am staying in a new neighborhood. Once I got checked atvaround 8 oclock I went down the street to a small local fish place. Par for the course there was a guy standing outside trying to wave people in. I took the bait and sat down. There were two other tables taken - two young German woman at one, and a Kiwi woman and Turkish guy at the other.

It tired out that the guy waving us in didn't even work there - he was just a regular customer. We all hung out and had a great time till 3AM. We all ended up taking some beers down to a park by the Bosphorous before heading home. Too bad my phone was dead - no pictures. Hopefully I'll see them today and get some of theirs!

Headed Back To Istanbul

I wasn't very excited about it but any other non-Schengen city wouldn't be better. I feel like I know it somewhat and thanks to Mo & Duria I know some things to do that I missed the first time around.

I got a bus from Brasov directly to Otopeni airport so I don't have to deal with the depressing Bucharest train/bus station.

I'm glad I came here but I ended up watching a lot of tv!

I'm a True Exile

I want to go back to mainstream Europe. But I'm not legally allowed to spend more than five more days there before October.
Fortunately, cheap hotels in Brasov have big flat screen tvs with a decent amount of US programming. A whole new season of Pawn Stars begins July 6th.

Anyway, I'm determined to be back in Madrid for 4th of July and it looks like the most likely date for coming back to the states is the 8th. Can't wait to to watch some Matz games!

Here's a pic of Brasov.

Transylvania !!

That's it, I'm moving to Brasov. 

The area around the Brasov train station is so grim that I considered just hopping on the next train out of there.

The station is two miles from the center of town and the area in between is totally depressing. Even once I made it into town I was pretty traumatized.

But you know what?  Brasov is fantastic!  I feel like I'm closer to home than I've been in months. My new all-time favorite place in the world is a place called the Hockey Pub.  Apparently the owners are NHL fanatics so there is memorabilia all over the place. But that's not why it's my favorite place - the staff is a riot. It's very upscale. The people who work there wear white shirts, black vests and bow ties. When I first got there, one of them, a young woman named Joanna asked me my name, where I'm from, and why I came to Brasov. I told her that at first I wanted to go hiking in the mountains surrounding the town but recently read that there are a lot of bears in those hills.  She told me not to worry,  I would definately not encounter any bears - but if I did, drop my backpack if I had one, or random pieces of clothes if not. That would distract the bear while I found my escape route. The escape route should ALWAYS be downhill. Bears have a tough time running downhill. It seemed like a lot of advise to give someone who was definately not going to encounter a bear.

So anyway,  the place was empty so we watched the Angelina Jolie movie 'Salt'.  I'm surprised I hadn't seen it before. It was entertaining. So over 2.5 hours I had a nice salad, chicken fingers, three glasses of wine and two beers. The bill was 67 "Lei" which is about $17.   I told the I'd see them tomorrow, as long as I don't get eaten by a bear!

So Hard To Leave Cappadocia :(

There aren't many flights out of here and the cheapest one to Bucharest leaves at 6AM.  There are shuttle busses that run from Goreme (where I am now) to Keyseri Airport and they leave here 2.5 hours before the flight so I'll be on one at 3:30 IN THE MORNING!

But I've seen a lot of Capadocia. Yesterday Mo, Duria, Juan & I rented a car and saw three very cool things. First was the biggest of the carved out structures which is a huge pinacle that had been carved out for dwellings for the past couple of thousand years. Walking to and from it was some of the steepest and slipperiest terrain I've ever seen. Yet lots of people were doing it. Most impressive was a young Russian woman with leather soled sandals carrying a banana.

Next we went to a 1900 year old underground city. Supposedly there are 5000 rooms all connected underground. It's very impressive and included a 150 meter tall ventilation shaft, kitchens, bathrooms, etc. I think early Christians hid there from the Romans or something. The tour guide claimed that on of the carvings is one of the earliest Christian crosses known (picture here). 

Finally we drove another hour to the Ihlara Valley and hike along the bottom of it for a couple of hours before Mo & Duria caught their bus home to the south of Turkey.  There's a carved out church in the valley with incredibly vivid 9th - 11th century frescoes (picture).

The thing I someday will probably regret not doing is taking a balloon ride. Apparently this is one of the best places in the world to do that. I wasn't thrilled about getting in one of those things and besides you have to get up at 3:00 in the morning. Like I'd ever do that!