Day 1 Denver > Chicago > Warsaw, Poland > Istanbul, Turkey
Today was a lot of flying. 18 hours and 3 stops, but my 8 hour flight from Chi-town to Poland was pretty legit. Watched Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight rises. Then I landed in Poland. At the airport I walked out of the bathroom the same time some dude did. We both double did a double check and it turned out he went into the women's restroom! Ha, what an idiot tourist!!!!
Finally made it to Turkey. I got change from Euros to Turkish money to ride a train at the airport. The security guard helped me figure it out, but I think he screwed me over. I have some cash, change, and a random red token that looks
like it came from Chucky Cheese.
Today was a lot of flying. 18 hours and 3 stops, but my 8 hour flight from Chi-town to Poland was pretty legit. Watched Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight rises. Then I landed in Poland. At the airport I walked out of the bathroom the same time some dude did. We both double did a double check and it turned out he went into the women's restroom! Ha, what an idiot tourist!!!!
Finally made it to Turkey. I got change from Euros to Turkish money to ride a train at the airport. The security guard helped me figure it out, but I think he screwed me over. I have some cash, change, and a random red token that looks
like it came from Chucky Cheese.
Day 2 Istanbul
Ha, I was hoping to just kind of ease into traveling but this first day of a new country was near disaster. After landing in Turkey (day 1 and 2 kind of blend together), the plan was to meet Tanner at the airport since his flight landed a couple hours after mine. Turns out there is 2 airports in Istanbul and we didn't realize it. We don't a have phone so we have no way of contacting each other besides messaging on Facebook. So you figured it out, we flew into different airports. Not knowing this, I waited for a couple hours at the Airport expecting to see Tanner. Finally I just decided maybe we will meet me at the hostel. This is where the "fun" begins. Istanbul is a city of 22 millions people and is spread out like 3 times the size of Chicago. That alone makes it hard to figure out where you are going. So I took a train a few stops, then went to a coffee shop to get Wi-Fi and see if I could communicate with Tanner. Had no luck so got back on the train. My train card I bought didn't work and some local who was tired of waiting behind me, graciously paid for my fare. As I am waiting for the train I notice something weird. The map route was different and there were no tracks on the ground. Turns out I'm getting on a bus instead of a train. Ah what the heck lets see where this goes. 30 minutes later I'm on the other side of Istanbul. I stop at coffee shops looking at maps and actually think I'm pretty close, but unfortunately I'm not. I am lost in a foreign country! Hours go by. I try to get a taxi to drive me to the hostel but they don't even understand how to get around this damn city. Finally just past midnight I get a taxi driver who knows where he's going and drops me off near the location. Another hour of searching/walking around and finally I am at the location! Tanner is waiting on the top floor balcony laughing his ass off. He had a similar getting lost experience as well. In all his different cities he has been in, Istanbul was the worst he has been lost in. Oh yeah, and his bag never made it here from his flight to Israel. Other than that things are great :).
Ha, I was hoping to just kind of ease into traveling but this first day of a new country was near disaster. After landing in Turkey (day 1 and 2 kind of blend together), the plan was to meet Tanner at the airport since his flight landed a couple hours after mine. Turns out there is 2 airports in Istanbul and we didn't realize it. We don't a have phone so we have no way of contacting each other besides messaging on Facebook. So you figured it out, we flew into different airports. Not knowing this, I waited for a couple hours at the Airport expecting to see Tanner. Finally I just decided maybe we will meet me at the hostel. This is where the "fun" begins. Istanbul is a city of 22 millions people and is spread out like 3 times the size of Chicago. That alone makes it hard to figure out where you are going. So I took a train a few stops, then went to a coffee shop to get Wi-Fi and see if I could communicate with Tanner. Had no luck so got back on the train. My train card I bought didn't work and some local who was tired of waiting behind me, graciously paid for my fare. As I am waiting for the train I notice something weird. The map route was different and there were no tracks on the ground. Turns out I'm getting on a bus instead of a train. Ah what the heck lets see where this goes. 30 minutes later I'm on the other side of Istanbul. I stop at coffee shops looking at maps and actually think I'm pretty close, but unfortunately I'm not. I am lost in a foreign country! Hours go by. I try to get a taxi to drive me to the hostel but they don't even understand how to get around this damn city. Finally just past midnight I get a taxi driver who knows where he's going and drops me off near the location. Another hour of searching/walking around and finally I am at the location! Tanner is waiting on the top floor balcony laughing his ass off. He had a similar getting lost experience as well. In all his different cities he has been in, Istanbul was the worst he has been lost in. Oh yeah, and his bag never made it here from his flight to Israel. Other than that things are great :).
Day 3 Istanbul
I was dead tired from the past couple days and slept until like 3pm. Then Tanner and I went and threw the football around in some random alley. I almost go ran over by cars while running routes but made a sweet one handed catch then ran into a tree.
Conversation while eating dinner.
Me: So yeah I'm glad I bought that water bottle. I don't want to have to spend money on water here.
Tanner: Have you been drinking tap water?
Me: Yeah, why?
Tanner. Ha, you're not supposed to drink that. Even the locals don't drink it. Have you been drinking it the whole time?
Me: Ah, crap.
I was dead tired from the past couple days and slept until like 3pm. Then Tanner and I went and threw the football around in some random alley. I almost go ran over by cars while running routes but made a sweet one handed catch then ran into a tree.
Conversation while eating dinner.
Me: So yeah I'm glad I bought that water bottle. I don't want to have to spend money on water here.
Tanner: Have you been drinking tap water?
Me: Yeah, why?
Tanner. Ha, you're not supposed to drink that. Even the locals don't drink it. Have you been drinking it the whole time?
Me: Ah, crap.
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