Friday, January 5 2007

Today I woke up at 05 am and I arrived at Schipol Airport at 7.10. The flight lasted 3 and half hours, from which the 2/3 I was sleeping. So, when the pilot informed us of our arrival, I woke up and saw beautiful sea all around, nice blue waters. Istanbul, here I come!
I exited the airport and took a taxi to the hostel I had booked. The taxi driver did not speak English at all, so I showed him the map and this way he managed to find the place. I got off the taxi, and carry my luggage to the entrance of ‘Antique Hostel’, where a young Turkish guy welcomed me in English and offered to help me with the luggage. I went to check in, another Turkish guy was there, very friendly and full of jokes. He introduced himself, his name is Onur.. The place is cosy. Some people are sitting in the living room, I go and take a sit as well. There is a small table with a coffee ‘machine’ on top and the sign “coffee break from 11.00- 23.00 daily”! I met Jason from the States and Selma from Germany. There is also a Canadian of Chinese descent and a girl from Israel surfing in the internet. Jason and Selma met in Istanbul and they seem quite nice people. We exchange emails, since Jason is always travelling and he might visit me in Amsterdam and Selma plans to stay in Istanbul for a while, she will do a research about art in Istanbul. We might look for an apartment together.
My room is a 4-person mixed dorm, I have the lower bed, a French guy sleeps on the one on top of mine, opposite there is a girl from South Korea and above her bed a girl from Israel. Good choice to live in a hostel for some days, I meet people from all over the world, young travellers.
Onur, the Turkish receptionist, offered to show me around the city, so we left when he finished his shift at 19 o’clock. We walked a lot, starting from Aya Sofia, passed the Galata Bridge and finally reached Taksim, the most famous/touristic place in Istanbul. We had a kokorets(chopped meet from intestines of lamp) sandwich and ayran, a drink made of yogurt, salt and water. Then we walked around and went to a café-bar and had some beers. A colleague of him with his Korean girlfriend joined us after a while.