For those determined to fly, having no wings is just a little detail
When I first saw those colorful pictures of Salvador I told to myself: “I have to visit this place!” When I went to read more about it on the internet I was like: “No way, I am not going there! My life is still too precious to me!” If you google world’s most dangerous cities it would be somewhere in the top 20 (together with many more Brazilian cities and the rest of Latin America). But then I went on booking.com and checked hotels’ reviews. And I thought: If thousands of tourists from different countries go there and write positive comments, then it can’t be that bad after all, right? =)
On the 25th of July we landed in sunny Salvador! We took a taxi and went to our nice hotel in the historical city center, in the district of Santo Antonio. The guy at the reception welcomed us with memorable words about his hometown:
“It’s not a paradise, it’s more like a hell. But a good hell!”
Brazil has never been on my high priority list and I don’t know how much time it would have taken me to visit the 5th largest country in the world, if it hadn’t been for the Olympics. But 2016 was the year of Rio de Janeiro and as I was going to volunteer for the first Olympic Games in South America, I decided I might as well travel around and discover the beauty of the host country. I asked my friends to join me, but no one was willing to pay sky high prices for flight tickets and hotels. I was actually ready to travel alone just by myself (and that was a scary thought!), but then I decided to check with online friends. I thought of 2 virtual friends that could have been interested in an adventure like this. And one of them, amazing Anna, said yes! I was very surprised by her prompt answer (she has even booked flight tickets before me!), but very-very happy as well that I got a chance to travel in her great company. As I said, I have never met her before in real life, but through her instagram I knew we would get along! And I was so right ) Later on another friend of her, Sasha, has joined us and we became a gang of three ready to enjoy Brazilian winter.
It’s been a long time since I wanted to start a blog. I have even included this task into my to do list, but have been postponing it again and again for years. Between university, work, sport activities, language lessons, social life, travel arrangements and just what we call “life” there was never a time slot for writing. But then I had these bad news about my back pain and I decided that the time has come. A sad occasion to start a blog, I agree… But I am not planning on keeping it sad, just the opposite! I want it to help me to find a bright side of everything that happens in my life and to enjoy it no matter what.
If you asked me about my biggest hobby, that would be sport. That’s my passion and something that makes me very happy. I had a lot of plans for this autumn: working hard on my gymnastics progress, getting back to tennis court, doing resistance training, dancing flamenco, attending swimming lessons to improve my technique and I even had a crazy idea of preparing for triathlon xD But the diagnosis says “herniated discs” and I can not even do my favorite gymnastics, let alone tennis court or triathlon. I will be going for swimming once a week and I will keep attending flamenco classes (I hope I can do that), the rest has to be set aside. In the beginning I thought that was devastating. And unfair. And why tf this is happening to me?! But then I realized that I could not dwell on it constantly, be depressed about the chronic pain and all the things I can not do for now, instead I should start concentrating on the things I can and should do. I need to take a break from active sport, I need to give a rest to my body and I need to put all my effort into back therapy. And as I have more free time now, I can start doing things that were always postponed… Like creating this blog!
I am not sure what will be the content of these pages. Something about health, something about sport, something about travels. Delicious breakfasts as well, friendships all over the world, languages and who knows maybe even about schattenmorellen! 😉
If you read my previous posts on this blog you would probably remember how unhappy I was about staying in a local family with people I’ve never met in my life. I was stressed and disappointed. To say the least … But you know, sometimes bad beginnings turn into amazing adventures. And that was exactly the case. It took me a while to get back to this blog and to write this post as a tribute to my very best Turkish family 🙂
I remember that night in the car, when we were driving to my new home and I was imagining all the bad stuff that would happen to me. I thought of some strange and unknown people I would have to share the roof with and I really didn’t like that outlook. I thought that I would be so constrained and bounded, that I would never feel free at this place and would have to adjust all my behavior to be as invisible as possible… I thought about my long working hours and the stressful way home… and how sad it would be to come back every night and not being able to relax and just be left alone doing whatever I wanted to do. I thought I would have to force myself to fit in and that my 3 weeks would be a disaster. Yes, I am a drama queen sometimes. I totally agree ))
But then in the middle of the night when they opened the door and hugged me, when I saw that smile on Yaren’s face I got my peace and decided that maybe it wouldn’t be that bad after all 😉 Continue reading “My Turkish Family”→
That weekend started on Friday night. We were taken to Fasıl by our IAESTE committe.
Some information about fasil from The Guardian: “Fasil is what makes a good night great in a traditional Turkish meyhane (tavern) – a motley band of violin, lyre and clarinet-playing musicians and singers who usually mix classical Turkish music, well-loved songs from the 1950s and 1960s and sometimes a cheeky arabesque drumbeat to suit a crowd of diners. This kind of music is quintessentially crowd-pleasing, to the extent that, as the night progresses and the raki flows, the performance becomes the realm of the people and the diners themselves do most of the singing and a great deal of boozy dancing.” Continue reading “My second weekend”→
The time flies so fast and I can’t keep up with the speed. The intention of this blog was to write about my life in Istanbul, but the life was so intense that I didn’t actually have time to tell you about it. Occasionally I would write something on the way in public transport typing with one hand on my smartphone. This works best when you want to complain about something. Because when this feeling of something going wrong overwhelmes you and you have to speak it out, you don’t care about shaking bus, dozens of people around you and really uncomfortable conditions for writing even an sms let alone a whole blog entry 🙂 But when I want to tell you about my cool weekends and nice evening infront of Maiden Tower I would love to add some pictures to the post and take my time to write nicely about it. For this I need to sit at home at my laptop and invest an hour or two for that… But I never have this free hour! And it’s actually really good .. cause it means that I have much better things to do =)
Anyway I promise to myself to write about the last 2 weekends … I hope I can do it soon till I forget where I have actually been and what I have done there.
I was hesitating to write this for obvious reasons. But then I thought is it really me who should be hesitating? And I realized that no. It’s actually them who should have hesitated to arrange things the way they did. For my friends who don’t know about all the fun I am having with accommodation here is a short introduction: We were staying in the student dorms till now, but on the 1st of September we had to leave them. Till the very last moment (and even after that) nobody knew where we would stay… We were asking a week before, 3 days before, one day before “Where will we be staying in Istanbul?”. The answer was very inspiring and comforting : “We don’t know yet … but we’ll fix it!”. And who will fix in the end my broken nerves and spirit?
It is time to show you some pictures! Last weekend I could finally start enjoying the Istanbul that everyone loves. Well .. maybe not everyone, but you know what I mean 🙂 The whole week I have to work and my sightseeing consists of Metrobus and all the different people around – by the way, quite interesting from an ethnographical point of view. But on the weekend I can finally be just a normal tourist and have some fun. The first stop was Dolmabahce – a beautiful palace built in European style on the coastline of Bosphorus. I have already been there in 2010, so I decided not to go inside and spare myself 30 liras (12 euros) entrance fee. I actually thought that the guys would see the palace in one hour and I could meanwhile walk around in the nice garden it has. But I was not admitted to the garden without a ticket…. and it took the guys longer to see the palace. So I ended up waiting for 2 hrs alone and then one more hour with some people.. I learn from my mistakes and will not plan like this again =) Continue reading “Dolmabahçe, Arnavutköy and Rumeli Hisarı”→
It’s hard to get used to the chaos and crowds of Istanbul. There are always masses of people around you and they are always in a hurry. They run to get the Metrobus, they run up and down the escalators, they run to get out of the metro, they run to cross the street… they run all the time like they were programmed for a certain speed and there were no option to slow down. Inside myself sometimes I scream “Please, stop this madness! Why can’t you walk …just walk.. and breathe.. and look around for the sake of diversity? And smile.” Yes, people here don’t smile. If you look at their faces they are always tense and with a lot of wrinkles even young people. Continue reading “Madness”→
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