Anyone want to buy my shoes?

Fetiye, Turkey



I finally got pictures to work. I am going to China in a couple weeks so when there I will catch up all the old ones. For now, here are some from Turkey and one from Estonia.


I don't have much to say about Estonia. It seemed very blah after seeing Riga and Klapeida and all these other wonderful places in neighboring countries. However, I did get a chance to shoot a bow. My first shot hit the center of the target! But I couldn't duplicate that unfortunately. I hit the target on at least half my shots though! Here is my epic photo with wrist protector and cape. That's right, I'm wearing a cape.

Shooting a bow in Estonia

I spent a week in Istanbul before coming here to Fetiye and it was a hell of an experience. I mean... Bangkok felt big but Istanbul is HUGE! It has 4 million more people than Bangkok in about the same amount of space. The nicest area is called Taksim and no, it is not the place that has the palace, or the blue mosque, or Aya Sofia. That section is Sultenamhet. Taksim is just one neighbourhood north of Sultenahmet across a stretch of water called the Golden Horn. Taksim is a bit of an amalgamation kind of like Istanbul itself. You can buy stuffed muscles and 'wet hamburgers' (actually really delicious) on the street and if you keep walking you find bars, shops and a tourist haven without all the tourists. There is one street with about 30 small pubs and restaurants where another Canadian told me 'eventually if you sit here long enough you will meet everyone you know on this street.' I think it's not too far from the truth.

Istanbul - Foreground is Taksim, water is The Golden Horn and background is Sultenahmet

Taksim


Looking at Sultenahmet across the Golden Horn

Sultanahmet has some beautiful buildings but is a little too crowded with tourists. And not normal tollerable tourists, but the ones who are holding maps, looking at the sky, wandering in all directions and snapping photos whenever possible. You know, the ones where if you sit in the corner where there is nothing interesting with the hopes of taking a break from them, they all come over to you because they think you're looking at something that's not in their guidebooks... grrr... Still, like I said, the places are beautiful.

The Blue Mosque

Inside the Blue Mosque


Aya Sofia - 1500 year old church turned to Mosque turned to museum

Me at the Palace and the Asian side of the city in the background

So where does the title of this blog come in? Well I was sitting in a park across the street from the tourist zone and a local guy comes up beside me and sits down on the bench. He lights up a cigarette and asks me if I smoke. I say no so he asks me if I want to buy some marijuana. I say no again and we make small talk for a few minutes before he mentions he owns a carpet shop in one of the bazaars. He wants me to go with him to see it and buy a carpet. The next few minutes passed with me trying fruitlessly to explain to this guy that I have no use for a carpet and that I can hardly carry it around on the top of my backpack for the next year while travelling the world. Eventually though he does let it drop and we make some more small talk. I tell him I'm staying with a girl in a neighbourhood called Fulya and he promptly asks if we can have a threesome... 'No,' I say, trying to keep a straight face. 'I don't think that's a good idea.' So he spends the next few minutes talking about the tightness of various bodily orafices and then looks down to notice my shoes. 'Those are nice' he says. I agree, thankful to change the subject. 'Can I have them?' I laugh. 'No, you can't have my shoes.' 'Why not?' 'Because I need them for walking.' He thinks for a minute and says 'Can I buy them?' he sees the look on my face and says 'Okay, I'll give you 30 Liras and my shoes if you give me yours.' I tell him no again. By this point I'm getting tired of new experiences and conversation with the locals so I say I have to go. He asks me for an email address and I get out a pen to give him mine, thinking he'll never write me anyway. 'No,' he says, 'I want an email for some Canadian girls.' I leave.

Fetiye is a beautiful place. Very different from Istanbul. It's on the coast of the Mediteranian next to a small area called Ölüdemiz which translates to 'The Dead Sea.' It's not the same famous one that you have heard of from Jordan but it is a beautiful area. I've been swimming there twice now and today in Butterfly valley, a place only accessible by boat or a long steep clımb down a cliff, I met a Chinese girl from Shanghai. You remember what I said about the universe working out if you put yourself out there enough? Well Shanghai is where I plan to teach in a couple weeks so she has agreed to meet up with me when I arrive and show me around a bit and help me get settled. The universe rocks.

2300 year old Lycian tomb in Fetiye

Butterfly Valley

Ölüdemiz - The Dead Sea

Something to Remember

Istanbul, Turkey

I wrote this in my journal while flying above the black sea feelıng a little sentimental. Thought I'd copy it here:

I want to wrıte about somethıng that I think is important.

Often when hearing about humans and our affect on the earth, we hear about our contribution to global warming, or increased extinction rates, or nuclear power, or water pollution, or the destruction of forests to build cities and farms, or, well, you get the idea. And these are important issues. More than important. And they're not being given as much consideration as they warrent or require and I thınk as a species, in our attempt to increase awareness with all these things and in some meaningful way try to repair the damage we have done, we become focused on the negative. On only the faultsö or what we have taken away from the planet. And maybe this is necessary too ın order to incite change at a faster rate. But I think despite all that, it's occasionally just as important to look at what we've added to the planet, lest we forget our magnificence while remembering only our faults.

Right now I'm sittıng in a plane, in the window seat lookıng out over the northern coast of the black seaç The moon is at half, and the earth is nearly as dark as the sea by which ıt rests, mınus of course for a strıng of a million tiny yellow lights, outlining the coast like fireflys all travelling in a lıne until they bunch up, denser and denser into a cıty. The lights twinkle like stars brought down from the sky, marking the land where humankınd had decided to settle.

Behind me, further back in the airplane, people are clapping rhythmically and laughing, as one teenager plucs at a sort of mini-guitar while others dance in the aisle. They're forced to stop as the plane begins to descend but suddenly there is a greater cheer in the fuselage. Others are laughing and talkıng with more vigor and soul.

These are things we've given the planet. These are things that shouldn't be ignored or overshadowed by the threat of global warmıng, because just as we've created pollution, we've also created lıght. And it's damn beautiful.

2 month anniversery

Tallinn, Estonia

Computer is coming... yay.

I've officially been out here for two months now. (well, two months and a day, I couldn't get to a computer yesterday) and thought I'd write a little post celebrating my anniversery and some of the things I've learned so far, since about two weeks ago it officially became the longest trip of my life.

Ten things I've learned:

1. Just because it's a train or bus, and not a plane, doesn't mean you can arrive to catch it with only one minute to spare.

2. Couchsurfing.org is the best website ever invented. If you travel, use it.

3. Never turn down an invitation to a party, especially if it goes until 8am.

4. No skin, no win - An inside joke that we discovered turned out to be true when watching women's beach volleyball - the team with the least amount of clothing wins every time. Maybe it's air friction slowing everyone else down :) Keep that in mind ladies when you're running late!

5. Friends are the most important thing when traveling - even if they're new ones and you only see them for two days in your life.

6. The government loves to get you to sign shit with deadlines when you're out of the country.

7. If you sneeze it means thank-you in Lithuanian. "ahh choo"

8. "super duper" means "super ass" in Polish - I found out the hard way.

9. The hottest girls in Europe (well, of the countries I've been too) come from Poland (sorry Latvia, you're a close second).

10. I can limbo like a young Hermes. Somehow I won a limbo contest... not really sure how...


and here's a bonus number 11: McDonald's really DOES taste the same everywhere.


See you all from Turkey!