Whirling Dhivirshes - 9.8.06

Easyjet is wonderful because its cheeeeep. It sucks cause it takes you to out of the way airports and you land at ungodly hours. My original pan was to sleep at the airport ( i landed at 3am) instead of paying the 50 euro cab ride into the city ( i landed in the Asian part of turkey). However when taking money out of the ATM with a bunch of swiss germans, some guy offered to take us in for 10 euro. I know a deal when i hear one so i jumped at the offer and was too tired to think that maybe he was kidnapping us...plus i figured me and 8 swiss germans could take him on...at the very least we would give him cancer from the second hand smoke being emanated from the swiss.

I had a reservation at the Bahaus Hostel in Sultanahmet (thank you Kenny your blog has been a valuable source of information and oh yes they do remember you ;) ) I arrived at 4am to an intense political debate going on outside...i was immediately impressed and frightened. Basically Sam (good guy) was on the wrong end of an onslaught being spewed by an "ugly american". To be fair this guy knew his shit about Cypriotic politics. He was amazingly worldly but just obnoxiously loud about it...poor sam. Considering i was exhausted and would probably mistake Cyprus for Corfu i decided to go bed. There weren't any beds available for me (i was early) but i was told i could sleep in the cafeteria. Now this might sound unappealing but what they mean by cafeteria in turkey apparently is a super comfy lounge like room, full of cushions, divans and pillows. i passed out at 5am and was woken up 4 hours later with a turkish breakfast...this place rules.

Sam from England

My first order of business was to try and buy tickets for tuesday's champions league game Galatasaray vs Bordeaux (french team...i really don't want to explain the nuances of european soccer and what the champions league is so either look it up yourself or buy a six pack and ask me next time you see me). i went to Taxsim (the business/shopping area of Istanbul) to find the turkish equivalent of ticketmaster. i randomly stumbled on it and was so amazed at how cheap the tickets were that i also got a ticket to saturdays game Fenerbache vs Antalyaspor (turkish league game). Excited i had my footie plans i decided to walk back to the hostel (i tool a cab to taxsim and got seriously ripped off as i just found out about an hour ago).

Istanbul is filled with cats. They have no fear. This one was either eyeing me or my kebab.

Kids cooling off

I basically ambled around checking out the riverside and parks and got back to the hostel at 4pm. i moved into the dungeon like room and immediately met a very nice girl from New York. Emily mentioned that she and a bunch of others were going to see a whirling diversh show at 7 and i was welcome to join. Whirling Dhivirsh's is not a turkish punk band as one might expect but more of a religious experience where the performers dance or twirl themselves into a trance accompanied by incredibly beautiful and haunting music. Thats the basic gist of it.

Whirling Dhivirsh's

Whirling Dhivirsh's

East meets west with traditional religious ceremony and shell station in the back

So our motley crew of americans, candians, brits, germans and some serbs ended up at the show. it was very interesting but unfortunately no flash photography which makes sense cause some of these flashes could wake up the dead let alone disrupt a religious trance. Afterward after a brief stop to get some chips and fuel up we went to dinner. This was a great get to know you and chat session.

Matthew from Winnipeg (likes the weakerthans!) with incredibly structured cheekbones. this feature was not just noted by me by the way!

Emily. She has the most fascinating phobia. She has the deepest paranoia that under severe stress she will lash out at authority figures by kicking them. She also feels this way in front of the elderly and pregnant woman...She's awesome.

The thing about hostels is that if you want to you can meet people very easily. People are always friendly and willing to share experiences and advice.i really have nothing to offer as i just started traveling (though my experiences in italy and spain have come in handy) but i do have a laptop which makes me somewhat useful to others. what also amuses me is that people become associated from where they're from. Its not Emily Oberlin but emily from new york or brian from seattle or nikola from serbia. This also helps with remembering people's names something i have discovered i'm useless at....i like meeting people and i like to talk, so i think i'm going to dig this hostel thing. At the end of the evening we all went up stairs to the roof deck which looks out over the Bhosporus and chatted and drank. I can't wait to actually sit up here in the sun and do some work...hell if i can pay for my trip while experiencing it in a gorgeous setting then why not.