I spend a lot of lazy days at home on the internet, and often read craigslist istanbul to see what weirdos I share my city with. Craigslist personal ads are usually just inappropriate pictures with ridiculous pick-up lines, but when I saw the posting title "Hank Rearden is looking for Dagny - 28 (Ankara)," I thought that I'd found my husband. (For those of you who don't know, Hank Rearden and Dagny are characters from my favorite book, Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand).
Here is the man's full-text posting.
"Many guys dont want what I want. Any female must talk fluently what the hell she is talking about. Must be smart. Must be strong. Must deserve what she wants. I am a person of reason so I'm looking for same. Integrity, consistency, honesty are must. Sense of humor mostly comes with them. Appearence is important for me as long as one has the characteristics written here. Beauty is necessity but if you are not attractive -(beauty and attractiveness are different issues. For example: Adriana Lima, Megan Fox are beautiful women but not attractive for me. I prefer Gisele Bündchen, Rachel McAdams, Sienna Miller, Saffran Burrows;)) -it doesnt make sense at all. To hell, I'm not only looking for somebody to have sex. I must enjoy spending time with her.
Whatever, you must be single in every sense. No widows, no married and etc. If you have a boyfriend, dump him first before answer this. Age range between 20-28. Older than it is not ok. Younger is too young for me.
Send your picture please.I hate headshots. Find something spontaneous. Dont expect me to answer without it.
In case that I dont answer you even if you send your picture: You must know I am so pathetic that I cannot say "I am sorry, I didnt like you".
Lastly, keep it that way if you think I am an asshole.
Ps: I'm not like Hank Rearden but he's my role model. "
Turkish men don't seem to be the kind of people who A) read Ayn Rand and B)Of course the last thing I need is to meet strange men on the internet , but I thought his posting deserved a response. So I wrote to him, just telling him how much his posting "spoke" to me as someone who wishes to become a character from Atlas Shrugged and I asked if he could let me know if he got a date out as a result of the post, just to know if there are other girls with weird fantasies like me. I wished him luck in his search for his Dagny, and got a nice response back. If only he were really Hank Rearden...
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Better Than a Horoscope
So Mike was typing in my blog address to read my new post and accidentally mistyped one letter. The blog he came to seems to eerily relate to what I'm going through in my life right now, so I wanted to share the most fitting part. It's like reading a horoscope that exactly sums you up at that moment in your life, only weirder because it's a random blog. Crazy coincidence! Imagine that the "you" is me, and the "I" is Aissa...
Thursday, April 04, 2002
Let's not have this coversation, you and me. We've done it before, and the same thing always happens.
You'll get pissed off, and I'll get self righteous, and we'll end up not talking for months until one of us comes up to the other on the street and we decide that we'll never part again. And six months later, we will.
Because you are fickle. And I am jealous.
You will find another and run off for a while, and when I call you on it, we will have this conversation again, and I will tell you that you won't find the pieces you're missing in another person and you will tell me to fuck myself.
And you'll know, as you always do, that I am right. But that fact will not be enough to stop you from going because...
Because you don't want me to be right.
So let's not have this conversation. Let's pretend that this has never happened, and never will, and when you don't call me I'll just shrug and write it off as one of those things that a person does when she is finding herself.
And we will leave it at that.
Thursday, April 04, 2002
Let's not have this coversation, you and me. We've done it before, and the same thing always happens.
You'll get pissed off, and I'll get self righteous, and we'll end up not talking for months until one of us comes up to the other on the street and we decide that we'll never part again. And six months later, we will.
Because you are fickle. And I am jealous.
You will find another and run off for a while, and when I call you on it, we will have this conversation again, and I will tell you that you won't find the pieces you're missing in another person and you will tell me to fuck myself.
And you'll know, as you always do, that I am right. But that fact will not be enough to stop you from going because...
Because you don't want me to be right.
So let's not have this conversation. Let's pretend that this has never happened, and never will, and when you don't call me I'll just shrug and write it off as one of those things that a person does when she is finding herself.
And we will leave it at that.
Observations
Now that I've been living in Turkey almost 2 months, I wanted to post some observations about Turkish life/Turkish culture.
Turkish people seem to view children as public property. It is expected that cute kids will be admired and entertained by strangers. My Russian teacher has a three-year-old son and a baby son, and she talked about how strange it was when she first arrived to have her kids manhandled without her permission. We sat together in a tea house outdoors, and one homeless man stuck his fingers into the stroller and started petting the baby's hands, a lot of people stopped and leaned over the stroller smiling and baby-talking, and a few people tousled the three-year-old's hair. Sasha said that in Ukraine the toddler was friendly and outgoing around strangers, but now is shy and reserved and uncomfortable being touched. In America, a woman would freak out if a strange man picked her baby up out of the stroller and started cooing at him! But here it seems perfectly normal and harmless.
_____________________________
In almost all countries in the world with the exception of the US and maybe Canada, soccer/football is the national sport. Everyone watches it, learns the chants, bets on matches, buys jerseys, and basically bleeds the colors of their favorite team. Turkey takes the love of soccer to a whole new level- here it is a way of life. Istanbul has 5 professional teams that all play in the top league in Turkish competition, and everyone has a team that they support- no one seems to be impartial here. When there is a match on, all the bars and cafes are full of people facing the TV, glued to the game, passionate about the result. Every vegetable stand and mini-market has a tv inside so that even men stuck at work can see the game in its entirety. The best games are the "derby" games between rival Istanbul teams. You can tell when those games are on because everyone is wearing a soccer jersey, and shouts drift out of the windows of cafes and homes when goals are scored or great saves are made.
Mike is big football fan and his favorite team is Manchester United, and he was ecstatic (as ecstatic as a British man gets) when he found out that they were coming here to play Besiktas, Turkey's champion from last year. We bought tickets online in the Besiktas section and I got to experience my very first soccer game. It was the perfect game to go to! Even if you hate soccer, you would have enjoyed this game. Besiktas fans recently received the title of "the world's loudest fans" at 132 decibels, and it was amazing to see the devotion for the game that all the fans had.
The stadium is designed so that 90% are home fans, with just a tiny section in the corner reserved for away fans. This section is fenced in like a cage, and even has a net over the top so that no one can throw anything at them. We could have gotten tickets to be in the Man Utd section, but they cost 123 pounds, compared to 75 lira in the home section. We also thought it would be a better cultural experience to sit with the Turks. Who really wants to spend 90 minutes with a bunch of British soccer hooligans anyways? :)
We got to the stadium an hour and a half before the match started, and already some people were there, eating bags of sunflower seats and every so often chanting Besiktas chants in response to the Man Utd fans in the cage. Once the game started, all the fans were on their feet and remained standing for the entire 90 minutes. Building up to the kick-off, all the fans were chanting and jazz-handing, getting louder and louder. At the moment the first kick was made, 32,145 (minus 2 because Mike and I didn't know what was going on... 32,143) fans simultaneously said, "Shhhhh" and then again built up into louder and louder songs. Everyone knew all the chants, and we discovered about halfway though that in the section opposite, there were 3 man standing up facing the spectators and leading the chant. Their section would start a chant, and then it would go around the stadium like an echo. These men are called "amigos" and their job is to plan and choreograph new chants and songs. Before the match, hardcore fans meet up to learn the chants for that game. The only chants we understood must have taken them hours to think up "Fuck you Manchester" and "Fuck you Rooney" (yes, very original).
Having heard horror stories about violence between Turkish and English fans and seeing the away section cage made me quite frightened to be a white faced, non-Besiktas-jersey-wearing, English speaking girl sitting voluntarily in a sea of hardcore Besiktas fans. We got some weird looks by the ticket collectors and security staff for clearly being foreigners in the Turkish section. The only fans we talked to were totally nice about Mike being a Manc and a Man Utd fan, and didn't make us fear for our lives even in the slightest.
The game was definitely not the most exciting game in history, but the atmosphere more than made for it. Manchester won with a goal 13 minutes before the finish, so Mike silently cheered while the entire stadium silenced for the first and only time all game.
Here is a video taken during the quieter second half to give a taste of what the stadium was like- imagine this x100 in your ears for 90+ minutes!
_____________________________
Mike got a haircut in a Turkish barber shop, and it was a great experience for me to sit and watch and learn about the 'secret' world of men's barbers. There were 6 or 7 barber chairs, and just as many barbers. The place was busy- every seat was taken and men were waiting for their turn. Mike went in just for a haircut, but most men were there getting shaved too. It seemed that the normal procedure goes like this: a man sits down in the chair and presumably tells the barber what he wants done. The barber slathers shaving cream on his face and neck using an oversized makeup brush and fits a new straightrazor knife into the handle. He proceeds to shave face and neck entirely, or to shape the moustache/sideburns into some ridiculous and very Turkish shape. As he shaves the hair off, he wipes the blade every few strokes on his non-shaving hand between thumb and index finger. He goes over each part of the face a few times to make sure all the hairs are gone, and then goes over it carefully again when he's done to make sure he hasn't missed anything. He rinses off the shaving cream and puts on one of two kinds of facecreams. Some men opt for a peel-off facemask- warm green goo that looks like leg wax and is applied using a tongue depressor, and some preferred a seafoam green cream that dries and is washed off 5 minutes later. Then, if the man has facial hair that wasn't shaved off (like a moustache), the barber goes through it with a comb and tiny scissors, trimming and shaping it symmetrically. Then he pulls out a spool of black thread, and proceeds to pluck the man's eyebrows using a procedure known as threading. One man even had a "tram line" cut into his eyebrow using a tiny razorblade. Once the beard/facial work is all done, the barber finally moves onto the hair. The cut is standard enough, except the barber uses no less than 3 different pairs of scissors, a straightrazor on the neck, and a mini-trimmer. The hair is then dried and styled using a hairdryer and round brush to spike or curl the hair into the silliest style possible. It seems as though every man then got a gob of hair gel and/or wax smeared into his hair and enough hairspray to kill the entire ozone sprayed on just in case the gel hadn't held the hairs in place enough.
Mike as a foreigner wasn't spared any of this barber shop tradition! Check out the style he got:
We can't decide if the barber was giving him a legitimate "normal" Turkish style, or if the fact that Mike is a Manchester United fan and he is a Besiktas fan made him give Mike an intention wanker style. I guess we'll never know! Once Mike washed out the tons of product, he was left with a good cut so it doesn't matter with what intent the barber styled him.
_____________________________
Ramadan (Ramazan in Turkish), Islam's holiest month, just ended on Friday. Even though Istanbul is a Western city where most people claim to be non-practicing Muslims, Islam is much more noticeable here than in Kyrgyzstan. There are mosques in every neighborhood, and 5 times a day, the multiple calls to prayer can be heard. Guidebooks warn that during Ramadan most shops and restaurants are closed because people should be fasting from sunrise to sunset, but the vast majority (if not all) shops in our neighborhood and in the center were open. We moved into our new apartment on the first day of Ramadan, and were awakened at 2:30 am by a drummer. He walked down our street and we heard him from other areas of our neighborhood too, always with the same beat and just a few seconds in between each. Groggily we couldn't figure out why a salesman would choose a drum and the middle of the night as a way to sell something, and were slightly disturbed that we were stuck in a neighborhood with midnight, drumming salesmen. Eventually we put two and two together and decided that he must be a human alarm clock, waking people up for the pre-sunrise meal. We heard him every morning for the whole month of Ramadan. A few times we got up to watch him walk past, and sometimes he had a child with him, sometimes he knocked on doors trying to get money, and sometimes he even sang to himself. We got used to him and even sort of like being in a traditional enough neighborhood where that kind of thing still goes on. You can read more about this tradition here.
Mike and I both have jobs now, and we start this week. Mike works at a university and I work at a primary school. We will both have regular schedules, lots of holidays, and evenings and weekends off. Much better than the Istanbul language center life where you work all weekend and only know your schedule a week in advance. We are not ready to get back to work after almost 4 months of vacation and traveling. Wish us luck!
Turkish people seem to view children as public property. It is expected that cute kids will be admired and entertained by strangers. My Russian teacher has a three-year-old son and a baby son, and she talked about how strange it was when she first arrived to have her kids manhandled without her permission. We sat together in a tea house outdoors, and one homeless man stuck his fingers into the stroller and started petting the baby's hands, a lot of people stopped and leaned over the stroller smiling and baby-talking, and a few people tousled the three-year-old's hair. Sasha said that in Ukraine the toddler was friendly and outgoing around strangers, but now is shy and reserved and uncomfortable being touched. In America, a woman would freak out if a strange man picked her baby up out of the stroller and started cooing at him! But here it seems perfectly normal and harmless.
_____________________________
In almost all countries in the world with the exception of the US and maybe Canada, soccer/football is the national sport. Everyone watches it, learns the chants, bets on matches, buys jerseys, and basically bleeds the colors of their favorite team. Turkey takes the love of soccer to a whole new level- here it is a way of life. Istanbul has 5 professional teams that all play in the top league in Turkish competition, and everyone has a team that they support- no one seems to be impartial here. When there is a match on, all the bars and cafes are full of people facing the TV, glued to the game, passionate about the result. Every vegetable stand and mini-market has a tv inside so that even men stuck at work can see the game in its entirety. The best games are the "derby" games between rival Istanbul teams. You can tell when those games are on because everyone is wearing a soccer jersey, and shouts drift out of the windows of cafes and homes when goals are scored or great saves are made.
Mike is big football fan and his favorite team is Manchester United, and he was ecstatic (as ecstatic as a British man gets) when he found out that they were coming here to play Besiktas, Turkey's champion from last year. We bought tickets online in the Besiktas section and I got to experience my very first soccer game. It was the perfect game to go to! Even if you hate soccer, you would have enjoyed this game. Besiktas fans recently received the title of "the world's loudest fans" at 132 decibels, and it was amazing to see the devotion for the game that all the fans had.
The stadium is designed so that 90% are home fans, with just a tiny section in the corner reserved for away fans. This section is fenced in like a cage, and even has a net over the top so that no one can throw anything at them. We could have gotten tickets to be in the Man Utd section, but they cost 123 pounds, compared to 75 lira in the home section. We also thought it would be a better cultural experience to sit with the Turks. Who really wants to spend 90 minutes with a bunch of British soccer hooligans anyways? :)
We got to the stadium an hour and a half before the match started, and already some people were there, eating bags of sunflower seats and every so often chanting Besiktas chants in response to the Man Utd fans in the cage. Once the game started, all the fans were on their feet and remained standing for the entire 90 minutes. Building up to the kick-off, all the fans were chanting and jazz-handing, getting louder and louder. At the moment the first kick was made, 32,145 (minus 2 because Mike and I didn't know what was going on... 32,143) fans simultaneously said, "Shhhhh" and then again built up into louder and louder songs. Everyone knew all the chants, and we discovered about halfway though that in the section opposite, there were 3 man standing up facing the spectators and leading the chant. Their section would start a chant, and then it would go around the stadium like an echo. These men are called "amigos" and their job is to plan and choreograph new chants and songs. Before the match, hardcore fans meet up to learn the chants for that game. The only chants we understood must have taken them hours to think up "Fuck you Manchester" and "Fuck you Rooney" (yes, very original).
Having heard horror stories about violence between Turkish and English fans and seeing the away section cage made me quite frightened to be a white faced, non-Besiktas-jersey-wearing, English speaking girl sitting voluntarily in a sea of hardcore Besiktas fans. We got some weird looks by the ticket collectors and security staff for clearly being foreigners in the Turkish section. The only fans we talked to were totally nice about Mike being a Manc and a Man Utd fan, and didn't make us fear for our lives even in the slightest.
The game was definitely not the most exciting game in history, but the atmosphere more than made for it. Manchester won with a goal 13 minutes before the finish, so Mike silently cheered while the entire stadium silenced for the first and only time all game.
Here is a video taken during the quieter second half to give a taste of what the stadium was like- imagine this x100 in your ears for 90+ minutes!
_____________________________
Mike got a haircut in a Turkish barber shop, and it was a great experience for me to sit and watch and learn about the 'secret' world of men's barbers. There were 6 or 7 barber chairs, and just as many barbers. The place was busy- every seat was taken and men were waiting for their turn. Mike went in just for a haircut, but most men were there getting shaved too. It seemed that the normal procedure goes like this: a man sits down in the chair and presumably tells the barber what he wants done. The barber slathers shaving cream on his face and neck using an oversized makeup brush and fits a new straightrazor knife into the handle. He proceeds to shave face and neck entirely, or to shape the moustache/sideburns into some ridiculous and very Turkish shape. As he shaves the hair off, he wipes the blade every few strokes on his non-shaving hand between thumb and index finger. He goes over each part of the face a few times to make sure all the hairs are gone, and then goes over it carefully again when he's done to make sure he hasn't missed anything. He rinses off the shaving cream and puts on one of two kinds of facecreams. Some men opt for a peel-off facemask- warm green goo that looks like leg wax and is applied using a tongue depressor, and some preferred a seafoam green cream that dries and is washed off 5 minutes later. Then, if the man has facial hair that wasn't shaved off (like a moustache), the barber goes through it with a comb and tiny scissors, trimming and shaping it symmetrically. Then he pulls out a spool of black thread, and proceeds to pluck the man's eyebrows using a procedure known as threading. One man even had a "tram line" cut into his eyebrow using a tiny razorblade. Once the beard/facial work is all done, the barber finally moves onto the hair. The cut is standard enough, except the barber uses no less than 3 different pairs of scissors, a straightrazor on the neck, and a mini-trimmer. The hair is then dried and styled using a hairdryer and round brush to spike or curl the hair into the silliest style possible. It seems as though every man then got a gob of hair gel and/or wax smeared into his hair and enough hairspray to kill the entire ozone sprayed on just in case the gel hadn't held the hairs in place enough.
Mike as a foreigner wasn't spared any of this barber shop tradition! Check out the style he got:
We can't decide if the barber was giving him a legitimate "normal" Turkish style, or if the fact that Mike is a Manchester United fan and he is a Besiktas fan made him give Mike an intention wanker style. I guess we'll never know! Once Mike washed out the tons of product, he was left with a good cut so it doesn't matter with what intent the barber styled him.
_____________________________
Ramadan (Ramazan in Turkish), Islam's holiest month, just ended on Friday. Even though Istanbul is a Western city where most people claim to be non-practicing Muslims, Islam is much more noticeable here than in Kyrgyzstan. There are mosques in every neighborhood, and 5 times a day, the multiple calls to prayer can be heard. Guidebooks warn that during Ramadan most shops and restaurants are closed because people should be fasting from sunrise to sunset, but the vast majority (if not all) shops in our neighborhood and in the center were open. We moved into our new apartment on the first day of Ramadan, and were awakened at 2:30 am by a drummer. He walked down our street and we heard him from other areas of our neighborhood too, always with the same beat and just a few seconds in between each. Groggily we couldn't figure out why a salesman would choose a drum and the middle of the night as a way to sell something, and were slightly disturbed that we were stuck in a neighborhood with midnight, drumming salesmen. Eventually we put two and two together and decided that he must be a human alarm clock, waking people up for the pre-sunrise meal. We heard him every morning for the whole month of Ramadan. A few times we got up to watch him walk past, and sometimes he had a child with him, sometimes he knocked on doors trying to get money, and sometimes he even sang to himself. We got used to him and even sort of like being in a traditional enough neighborhood where that kind of thing still goes on. You can read more about this tradition here.
Mike and I both have jobs now, and we start this week. Mike works at a university and I work at a primary school. We will both have regular schedules, lots of holidays, and evenings and weekends off. Much better than the Istanbul language center life where you work all weekend and only know your schedule a week in advance. We are not ready to get back to work after almost 4 months of vacation and traveling. Wish us luck!
Monday, September 7, 2009
Eternal Fame
So, in Kyrgyzstan there was a teacher who didn't like me because she thinks I "stole" Mike away from her. She left Kyrgyzstan less than 2 months after I arrived, so we didn't have too much time to not get along, but the feelings of hatred within her must have been so strong that she still feels the need to blog about me!
http://janesdailyblah.blogspot.com/2009/08/so-many-enemies.html
Check it out. At least she was still able to enjoy the book I recommended.
http://janesdailyblah.blogspot.com/2009/08/so-many-enemies.html
Check it out. At least she was still able to enjoy the book I recommended.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
New Address
Mike and I found the PERFECT place to live after weeks and weeks of looking. You can read a little bit about the house on craigslist, and this is our new mailing address:
Anna Marco-Cortiel
Işık Çıkmazı Sokak
No: 26
Yahya Kahya Mahallesi
Kasımpaşa Beyoğlu İstanbul
34440
TURKEY
We won't move until probably August 21st. When we move in we'll definitely post more pictures!
Anna Marco-Cortiel
Işık Çıkmazı Sokak
No: 26
Yahya Kahya Mahallesi
Kasımpaşa Beyoğlu İstanbul
34440
TURKEY
We won't move until probably August 21st. When we move in we'll definitely post more pictures!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Romania = Meh.
After a great 2 weeks in Austria at the end of July, Mike and I got on a train and headed into deepest, darkest Romania. It was a 20 hour train ride from Salzburg to Brasov (pronounced bra-shoff), with a 3-hour stop-off in Budapest. Mike and I were in separate sleeping compartments, and he was with a heavy metal family on their way to a music festival, and I had a nice German family on their way to 2 weeks hiking in the Transylvanian Alps. There were 3 little kids and they made me play games with them and listen to stories they were reading. The littlest girl kept calling me "hübsche frau" which made me feel really old
We found a man at the train station in Brasov offering accommodation, and it sounded like a better deal than hotels in Lonely Planet, so we went along with him. We got our own private accommodation with living room, satellite TV, breakfast, bathroom, and comfy bed. It was worth it, even for 25 euros per night. We definitely aren't in Central Asia anymore! Prices are much more expensive than Eastern Europe in 2007 too. Pretty soon Moldova will be just as expensive as Paris!
We spent the first day just wandering around central Brasov. They have a Hollywood-type sign on the top of the city's hill, so we took a cable car up to the top and found the "Panoramic Lookout" right next to the Brasov sign. There was a great view of the old architecture and all the red roofs, and we had a peaceful walk down the mountain on a leafy green path.
I found Mountain Dew in the shop which I hadn't seen since America and of course bought it, but was disappointed to find that it had a completely different taste. We spent all afternoon and evening watching satellite TV, because it was the first time in months that we'd had access to good English languages programs. TV is so much better without bad Russian playing over the English track.
The next day we caught a bus to Bran Castle, which is THE tourist place in Transylvania, and also where people believe that the inspiration for Dracula, Vlad the Impalor, lived. The castle was set up for tourists with lots of placards explaining history of royal families, the history of the area, and of course a lot information about Bram Stoker, Vlad, and Dracula. It was a pretty castle with some nice views of the countryside, but not really worth the entrance fee. I guess I've seen so many castles in Western Europe that it was more of the same.
When we tried to catch a minibus from Brasov to Bucharest, we learned that Kyrgyzstan is far more organized and advanced when it comes to transport. It's never good when Europe fails horribly in comparison to Central Asia! We waited at a parking space that had a sign for Bucharest, with times listed. Every time a minibus pulled in, we asked the driver if he was going to Bucharest and he said no. We asked where buses to Bucharest stopped, and they pointed to the spot we were standing at. When we asked when the next minibus was leaving they said "in a moment," but every bus that came "in a moment" was going somewhere else. We ended up waiting 2 hours and seeing more than 6 minibuses come and go, none of which would take us to Bucharest. We finally ended up taking a train for more money because no one was helpful in any way. Had it been Kyrgyzstan, upon arrival at least 10 men would have come to us, offering their services as the best. We would have had our choice of bus, minibus, shared taxi, or private taxi, all for much less than what we paid in Romania. Prices would have been haggled down because each driver wanted us more than the other, and we would have been on our way in less than 10 minutes. Romania, you have a thing or two to learn!
We hope to get a night bus to Istanbul so we wouldn't have to overnight in Bucharest, but all buses bound for Turkey left in the afternoon. We tried to get a train, but it meant going overnight to Sofia and then waiting there for ages to get another train to Istanbul, so that would have been twice as expensive and no faster. We went to the bus station just to see if there was a non-advertised bus leaving, but there was nothing until the next afternoon. Luckily there was a cheapish hostel just across the intersection from the bus station, and they had a great room with satellite, bathroom and great bed, so we didn't mind staying the night. We bought tickets for the coach bus, but when we got to the station the next afternoon, they piled us into a minibus full of Romanians. We weren't really sure what was going on, but the ticket seller assured us that we would be getting to Istanbul.
The drive back was mostly uneventful. There was bad weather in Bulgaria so it was rainy and gloomy, and our driver was a jerk and kept rolling his window down, even though we repeatedly asked him to put it up because it was cold. We arrived back in Istanbul at around 3:30 am, and sat in a park in front of the Blue Mosque until the first tram came around 5:30. We got back to Maggie's house in one piece and had long naps to make up for a sleepless night.
Overall, Romania was not what I expected. Muriel reminded me that Romania used to be my dream country, but to me it didn't really seem to have much to offer. My experience in Bulgaria was that the people were much nicer and things were a bit more organized, and now that it's not all that much cheaper than Western and Central Europe, there are other places to go with more things to see. Maybe we'll go back sometime since we do live so close, but I have to say that I was quite disappointed.
We found a man at the train station in Brasov offering accommodation, and it sounded like a better deal than hotels in Lonely Planet, so we went along with him. We got our own private accommodation with living room, satellite TV, breakfast, bathroom, and comfy bed. It was worth it, even for 25 euros per night. We definitely aren't in Central Asia anymore! Prices are much more expensive than Eastern Europe in 2007 too. Pretty soon Moldova will be just as expensive as Paris!
We spent the first day just wandering around central Brasov. They have a Hollywood-type sign on the top of the city's hill, so we took a cable car up to the top and found the "Panoramic Lookout" right next to the Brasov sign. There was a great view of the old architecture and all the red roofs, and we had a peaceful walk down the mountain on a leafy green path.
I found Mountain Dew in the shop which I hadn't seen since America and of course bought it, but was disappointed to find that it had a completely different taste. We spent all afternoon and evening watching satellite TV, because it was the first time in months that we'd had access to good English languages programs. TV is so much better without bad Russian playing over the English track.
The next day we caught a bus to Bran Castle, which is THE tourist place in Transylvania, and also where people believe that the inspiration for Dracula, Vlad the Impalor, lived. The castle was set up for tourists with lots of placards explaining history of royal families, the history of the area, and of course a lot information about Bram Stoker, Vlad, and Dracula. It was a pretty castle with some nice views of the countryside, but not really worth the entrance fee. I guess I've seen so many castles in Western Europe that it was more of the same.
When we tried to catch a minibus from Brasov to Bucharest, we learned that Kyrgyzstan is far more organized and advanced when it comes to transport. It's never good when Europe fails horribly in comparison to Central Asia! We waited at a parking space that had a sign for Bucharest, with times listed. Every time a minibus pulled in, we asked the driver if he was going to Bucharest and he said no. We asked where buses to Bucharest stopped, and they pointed to the spot we were standing at. When we asked when the next minibus was leaving they said "in a moment," but every bus that came "in a moment" was going somewhere else. We ended up waiting 2 hours and seeing more than 6 minibuses come and go, none of which would take us to Bucharest. We finally ended up taking a train for more money because no one was helpful in any way. Had it been Kyrgyzstan, upon arrival at least 10 men would have come to us, offering their services as the best. We would have had our choice of bus, minibus, shared taxi, or private taxi, all for much less than what we paid in Romania. Prices would have been haggled down because each driver wanted us more than the other, and we would have been on our way in less than 10 minutes. Romania, you have a thing or two to learn!
We hope to get a night bus to Istanbul so we wouldn't have to overnight in Bucharest, but all buses bound for Turkey left in the afternoon. We tried to get a train, but it meant going overnight to Sofia and then waiting there for ages to get another train to Istanbul, so that would have been twice as expensive and no faster. We went to the bus station just to see if there was a non-advertised bus leaving, but there was nothing until the next afternoon. Luckily there was a cheapish hostel just across the intersection from the bus station, and they had a great room with satellite, bathroom and great bed, so we didn't mind staying the night. We bought tickets for the coach bus, but when we got to the station the next afternoon, they piled us into a minibus full of Romanians. We weren't really sure what was going on, but the ticket seller assured us that we would be getting to Istanbul.
The drive back was mostly uneventful. There was bad weather in Bulgaria so it was rainy and gloomy, and our driver was a jerk and kept rolling his window down, even though we repeatedly asked him to put it up because it was cold. We arrived back in Istanbul at around 3:30 am, and sat in a park in front of the Blue Mosque until the first tram came around 5:30. We got back to Maggie's house in one piece and had long naps to make up for a sleepless night.
Overall, Romania was not what I expected. Muriel reminded me that Romania used to be my dream country, but to me it didn't really seem to have much to offer. My experience in Bulgaria was that the people were much nicer and things were a bit more organized, and now that it's not all that much cheaper than Western and Central Europe, there are other places to go with more things to see. Maybe we'll go back sometime since we do live so close, but I have to say that I was quite disappointed.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
With Dracula
Mike and I have spent an amazing 2 weeks in Salzburg. We've seen all the relatives, gone second-hand shopping and found some great things, spent time going through my grandma's apartment and taking things we liked (old Salzburg postcards, complete with Hitler Deutsches Reich stamps; a great hat that can be seen in my current facebook picture; some traditional Austrian jackets with goat-horn buttons, etc...) and of course eaten delicious food to the brim. We've probably each gained at least 5 kilos. But it was worth it! Schnitzel, Marillenknoedel, Eis, Kasnockl, Zwiebelrostbraten, Mohr im Hemd, the list goes on... yum! We haven't done much in terms of real touristy sightseeing, but Mike has gotten a good sense of what Salzburg is like. The weather hasn't been that great either. We definitely didn't pack right for the weather we've had. Every other day has rained and been freezing. Blah. Typical Austrian summer. We should have expected it.
On Saturday morning my parents and my sister Susi are taking a train to Freiburg to visit my sister Nici, and Mike and I are taking an afternoon bus to Brasov (25 hours from Salzburg), located in Transylvania in Romania. We'll explore for a few days, then spend a day or two in Bucharest, and then catch either a bus or a train back to Istanbul and back to real life. Mike got the EF job we wanted, I didn't, so he's set. I'm still searching for one, there aren't many options on the internet. I'll have to start going to language centers with my CV, or start finding private students. Not looking forward to that! There's a part-time job that I got, but I'm still looking for something else. Still apartment hunting too... we found the perfect one on craigslist, but it's a bit out of our price range.
Not much else new- I got a haircut with bangs and Mike got a cavity filled today after 4 hours in the dentist waiting room (and learned that he needs a wisdom tooth pulled ASAP). Hopefully he'll be able to enjoy our adventures in Romania even with a toothache!
I finally got all my Central Asian pictures posted on facebook. Hopefully that's the last you'll have to see of me in Central Asia for a long, long, long time.
On Saturday morning my parents and my sister Susi are taking a train to Freiburg to visit my sister Nici, and Mike and I are taking an afternoon bus to Brasov (25 hours from Salzburg), located in Transylvania in Romania. We'll explore for a few days, then spend a day or two in Bucharest, and then catch either a bus or a train back to Istanbul and back to real life. Mike got the EF job we wanted, I didn't, so he's set. I'm still searching for one, there aren't many options on the internet. I'll have to start going to language centers with my CV, or start finding private students. Not looking forward to that! There's a part-time job that I got, but I'm still looking for something else. Still apartment hunting too... we found the perfect one on craigslist, but it's a bit out of our price range.
Not much else new- I got a haircut with bangs and Mike got a cavity filled today after 4 hours in the dentist waiting room (and learned that he needs a wisdom tooth pulled ASAP). Hopefully he'll be able to enjoy our adventures in Romania even with a toothache!
I finally got all my Central Asian pictures posted on facebook. Hopefully that's the last you'll have to see of me in Central Asia for a long, long, long time.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Istanbul Introduction and More Current Events
I am currently in Austria with Mike, my parents, and the rest of the Euro family. Unfortunately my brother isn't here, even though he was supposed to be. He noticed the day before leaving America that his passport expired the next week. After spending 6 hours on the phone, my mom learned that he couldn't get an expedited appointment in CT, and the Prague Airport Police wouldn't even let him into the country (and that's assuming that the JFK Airport Police would have let him out). So he stayed how with his new boa constrictor, and my parents came alone. It's been nice having Mike 'Meet the Family' and having him around has made everyone practice their English pull out some good old 'hilarious' stories of me as a baby/kid. It's also been amazing to have great food again, good, non-fatty, non-teeth-breaking, non-mutton, non-drowning-in-oil food. We have another week here and then, somehow, we're going back to Istanbul, but we don't really know yet how. Maybe by bus, maybe by train, maybe by plane, but we haven't decided if/for how long we want to stop off in Budapest/Bucharest/Sofia/somewhere else. Blah. It's too bad that Europe is so expensive, and especially compared to the prices we're used to it's downright impossible to buy anything without feeling the hangman's noose of bankruptcy closing around my neck.
Our first week in Istanbul was great. We spent two nights in a hostel, which was nice because we met a great Australian couple, but not so nice because of course we had to pay, and the employees were jerks. We moved in with a friend of a friend, and were in a great part of town with an amazing Bosphorus view and great company. We spent the week looking at tons of apartments, but didn't find any that really spoke to us. We are looking for somewhere in the center with a view of the Bosphorus and without our price range, but nothing had everything we wanted. We're still busy emailing craigslist people, hoping to have places lined up for when we get back. We are still deciding if we want a flat for ourselves, or just a room in house/flat. We also had a job interview and stopped in a a handful of language schools we found on our wandering of Central Istanbul, but only got a response from one school we emailed. Everyone says that schools in Istanbul are desperate for teachers, so why don't they respond?? No one knows... We are hoping to hear back from EF by the end of the month, and hopefully we get the job. It's teaching at a foundation course for university students who need to get their English to an Intermediate level before stating university in English. It's a lot of money and not too much work, so it'd be ideal. We'll see!
We didn't do many touristy things but just walked around marvelling at the beautiful scenery that was all around. We watched a Turkish movie on someone's rooftop and had an unbelievable view of the entire city. The night pictures of Istanbul on facebook are taken from that very rooftop. We took a ferry across to the Asian side of Istanbul, which is just as modern and hip as the European side.
There's so much to do before we are really settled, but it will be great getting to know the city and find our way around. I'm looking forward to entertaining all the people who promise to come and visit! :)
Our first week in Istanbul was great. We spent two nights in a hostel, which was nice because we met a great Australian couple, but not so nice because of course we had to pay, and the employees were jerks. We moved in with a friend of a friend, and were in a great part of town with an amazing Bosphorus view and great company. We spent the week looking at tons of apartments, but didn't find any that really spoke to us. We are looking for somewhere in the center with a view of the Bosphorus and without our price range, but nothing had everything we wanted. We're still busy emailing craigslist people, hoping to have places lined up for when we get back. We are still deciding if we want a flat for ourselves, or just a room in house/flat. We also had a job interview and stopped in a a handful of language schools we found on our wandering of Central Istanbul, but only got a response from one school we emailed. Everyone says that schools in Istanbul are desperate for teachers, so why don't they respond?? No one knows... We are hoping to hear back from EF by the end of the month, and hopefully we get the job. It's teaching at a foundation course for university students who need to get their English to an Intermediate level before stating university in English. It's a lot of money and not too much work, so it'd be ideal. We'll see!
We didn't do many touristy things but just walked around marvelling at the beautiful scenery that was all around. We watched a Turkish movie on someone's rooftop and had an unbelievable view of the entire city. The night pictures of Istanbul on facebook are taken from that very rooftop. We took a ferry across to the Asian side of Istanbul, which is just as modern and hip as the European side.
There's so much to do before we are really settled, but it will be great getting to know the city and find our way around. I'm looking forward to entertaining all the people who promise to come and visit! :)
The End of Uzbekistan
So, after a long pause in updating that has left all of you I'm sure hanging in suspense, I am back online to complete the tale of Uzbekistan.
We arrived in Khiva with a mix of different kinds of transport. We took a bus to Burani, a town north of Khiva, then took a shared taxi to Urgench, and then another shared taxi to Khiva. Transport plus waiting for taxis to fill up ended up being most of the afternoon, but we spent 7000 sum each instead of 20,000 each, which a non-shared taxi door-to-door would have cost from Nukus to Khiva. We opted for price rather than speed, since of course we were on vacation and were not in any rush.
Khiva is a beautifully preserved old city, complete with city walls, mosques, medressas, and minarets. Lonely Planet complains that all the life has been squeezed out of it as a result of all the restoration that has kept the old town looking as good as it did, but I think that it's just the opposite. Many locals live in the Old Town and go about their normal lives in among all the mosques, it was easy to imagine ancient days with the hustle and bustle of market day.
Immediately when we got out of our shared taxi, a man stepped out of another taxi and recommended a homestay to us. We didn't have any preference, and for $10 per person per day with breakfast, it sounded like a great deal. And it really was a wonderful guesthouse. We had a private Western bathroom, an air conditioner (that really didnät work) and our own balcony, and there was a rooftop terrace with an amazing view of all of Khiva. We had dinner in the guesthouse on the roof and watched the sun set over the old fortifications and the minarets.
It was quite hot, and we spent two days just wandering around. We didn't pay to go into any museums or mosques, because we'd already seen our fair share of souvenier-shop-filled old brick buildings. But even just walking around the Old Town there was a lot to see.
We spent our last day in Khiva not even in Khiva. We got a taxi for $40 to take us around to some old forts in the surrounding desert of Khiva, about 1.5 hours from the Old Town. The driver knew where to find the forts, which are spread around a large area of desert. Archaeologists believe that there may be 50 forts in the area, and it is therefore named Elliq Qala, which means, of course, 50 Forts. We went to three forts, 2 of which we could walk around. They were quite well preserved, and even though they are more or less just different shaped piles of packed dirt, part of the fun was imagining how different it looked in its prime. We also stopped at lake Ayaz, which is a salty lake right in the middle of the desert. We had wanted to swim, but when we got to the lake and saw that it was quite gross-looking, with deep stinking sand/slush and lots of flies, we decided to just dip our feet in. It was still strange to see a bunch of seagulls in the middle of vast expanses of sand!
We then took a bus to Bukhara, where we spent a few days when we were in Uzbekistan in winter, but at that time it was so cold that we really didn't see everything there was to see. We spent most time in our hotel room watching satellite Arabic girls dancing around trying to get men to call in. This time, I was determined to do more sightseeing, even though all the tourists we'd met said that Bukhara was the hottest place they'd been. We were directed to a hotel by our taxi driver, who of course wanted us to stay in his friend's hotel. It was quite a swanky one, with a great courtyard. Tourist season was over, so we got a double room that was normally $50 for $25 including breakfast, satellite TV (broken), an air conditioner (not broken!!) and a shower with HOT WATER. Not too bad. I did the bargaining myself too, which made me feel quite good considering I usually hate it and I'm pretty bad at it. Mike is the master at haggling. I'll just leave it up to him whenever I can.
The thing we spent most of our time doing was looking at antique pieces of Uzbek fabric. I had wanted to buy one in Khiva but didn't, and then it turned out that the pattern I had really liked was unpopular and most of the people I talked to in Bukhara had thrown out their fabric in that pattern because no tourists wanted to buy it. But I learned from different salespeople the exact description and origin of the pattern I wanted, so it was quite easy to go from stall to stall saying I wanted Urgutskie suzani, and it makes shopping so much easier when sellers don't try to interest you with this and that that you really don't want. It was in-and-out, and finally I was able to find exactly what I wanted, and get them for amazing prices. I was even congratulated by the owner of our hotel for getting them so cheap! He asked how much I paid and I said 15,000, and he said '50,000? Good price!' and I said 'No FIFTEEN' and he couldn't believe it. He said it was local price, and that tourist price is MUCH more. So Bukhara was a good place for my haggling :)
In Bukhara we found a nice restaurant that had the first good fried laghman since we left Bishkek, and we found the mauseleum where Somoni was buried, the man who the Tajik currency is named after. Both Bukhara and Samarkand are predominantly Tajik towns, so it's not surprising for him to be there. We also found yet more medressas that we hadn't seen the first time around. It was really hot, but not as bad as we'd been expecting after all the stories.
We took a night train to Tashkent, and it was probably one of the most uncomfortable nights I've ever had. The train was HOT, and it was a newer sleeping car so instead of windows that pulled down to open, the tilted out, so there was barely any breeze. A bunch of policemen took up the sitting room under our beds, so we had to lie in bed the whole time while they were all underneath drinking and doing crossword puzzles. When we arrived in Tashkent I was terribly sweaty, tired because I hadn't really slept, and super dehydrated. When we arrived in Tashkent the hotel we wanted had no double room, so then I really wanted to cry and not have to find another place. We decided to go to a Lonely Planet guesthouse that it said was hard to find, and we got a taxi driver who looked at the map and seemed to have some idea where he was going. He didn't of course, and didn't believe when I told him he was going the wrong way. Finally we just got out because he couldn't find it, and luckily we weren't too far from where we were supposed to be. We found a nice driver who knew the place exactly and dropped us off there for free. It was $15 per person per night, but it had air conditioning and breakfast and I was way too narky to want to find another place.
I took a nap and a MUCH needed shower, and then we wandered around Tashkent some more. We spent 6 days in Tashkent in total in winter and Mike really didn't want to have to go back, but I thought there were still some things we could see. It was the hottest it had been the whole trip so we didnt feel like doing much, but the best thing was Aqua Park, possibly Central Asia's only worthwhile waterpark. Lonely Planet said it was 3000 sum ($2), but the price had gone up to 15,000 sum for 3 hours. We paid it and dogeared the page as yet another complaint to write to Lonely Planet about, but really enjoyed a few different swimming pools and some much needed tanning time.
We repacked our bags and caught an early morning flight to Istanbul. I worried that I might have some problems at the airport, as I had a felt rug, 2 antique pieces of fabric and a bullet from the Tajik-Afghan border in my bag, but it turned out that Mike was the one with the problems.
In his words...'At the airport in Tashkent, I went through all various checks until I go to the Passport Control. The guy behind the desk looked at my passport for a split second before telling me in Russian that there was a 'problem.' My passport, apparently, didn't work and I needed to pay the guy some money to get through. I suddenly lost all ability to understand anything he said at the mention of money and played dumb. I knew my passport was fine, just as it has been for the last 10 years. The guy called his supervisor who then tried to tell me I didn't have a visa. I pointed it out to him. Then he told me that I didn't have the correct stamp. i pointed it out to him. Finally, he dragged me off in the direction of a third guy. This one spoke some English and then tried to tell me that the picture in the passport wasn't me. Usually, this is an understandable mistake. The picture was taken when I was 16, I have short hair and no beard. This time, though, I had shaved my beard off and had an haircut so for the first time in years I actually DID look like my passport picture! I explained how time works and that no man is left unaffected. This didn't deter them... now it was a challenge. I wasn't going to pay them a penny, but they couldn't put so much effort in for nothing. Their last trick was to claim my passport was fake. I stood my ground and told them I'd wait for them to verify. Finally, they gave in and threw my documents back at my with contempt. '
Thus ended almost one year in Central Asia. All in all, it was a great experience, but I can't say I'd recommending life in Bishkek to anyone.
We arrived in Khiva with a mix of different kinds of transport. We took a bus to Burani, a town north of Khiva, then took a shared taxi to Urgench, and then another shared taxi to Khiva. Transport plus waiting for taxis to fill up ended up being most of the afternoon, but we spent 7000 sum each instead of 20,000 each, which a non-shared taxi door-to-door would have cost from Nukus to Khiva. We opted for price rather than speed, since of course we were on vacation and were not in any rush.
Khiva is a beautifully preserved old city, complete with city walls, mosques, medressas, and minarets. Lonely Planet complains that all the life has been squeezed out of it as a result of all the restoration that has kept the old town looking as good as it did, but I think that it's just the opposite. Many locals live in the Old Town and go about their normal lives in among all the mosques, it was easy to imagine ancient days with the hustle and bustle of market day.
Immediately when we got out of our shared taxi, a man stepped out of another taxi and recommended a homestay to us. We didn't have any preference, and for $10 per person per day with breakfast, it sounded like a great deal. And it really was a wonderful guesthouse. We had a private Western bathroom, an air conditioner (that really didnät work) and our own balcony, and there was a rooftop terrace with an amazing view of all of Khiva. We had dinner in the guesthouse on the roof and watched the sun set over the old fortifications and the minarets.
It was quite hot, and we spent two days just wandering around. We didn't pay to go into any museums or mosques, because we'd already seen our fair share of souvenier-shop-filled old brick buildings. But even just walking around the Old Town there was a lot to see.
We spent our last day in Khiva not even in Khiva. We got a taxi for $40 to take us around to some old forts in the surrounding desert of Khiva, about 1.5 hours from the Old Town. The driver knew where to find the forts, which are spread around a large area of desert. Archaeologists believe that there may be 50 forts in the area, and it is therefore named Elliq Qala, which means, of course, 50 Forts. We went to three forts, 2 of which we could walk around. They were quite well preserved, and even though they are more or less just different shaped piles of packed dirt, part of the fun was imagining how different it looked in its prime. We also stopped at lake Ayaz, which is a salty lake right in the middle of the desert. We had wanted to swim, but when we got to the lake and saw that it was quite gross-looking, with deep stinking sand/slush and lots of flies, we decided to just dip our feet in. It was still strange to see a bunch of seagulls in the middle of vast expanses of sand!
We then took a bus to Bukhara, where we spent a few days when we were in Uzbekistan in winter, but at that time it was so cold that we really didn't see everything there was to see. We spent most time in our hotel room watching satellite Arabic girls dancing around trying to get men to call in. This time, I was determined to do more sightseeing, even though all the tourists we'd met said that Bukhara was the hottest place they'd been. We were directed to a hotel by our taxi driver, who of course wanted us to stay in his friend's hotel. It was quite a swanky one, with a great courtyard. Tourist season was over, so we got a double room that was normally $50 for $25 including breakfast, satellite TV (broken), an air conditioner (not broken!!) and a shower with HOT WATER. Not too bad. I did the bargaining myself too, which made me feel quite good considering I usually hate it and I'm pretty bad at it. Mike is the master at haggling. I'll just leave it up to him whenever I can.
The thing we spent most of our time doing was looking at antique pieces of Uzbek fabric. I had wanted to buy one in Khiva but didn't, and then it turned out that the pattern I had really liked was unpopular and most of the people I talked to in Bukhara had thrown out their fabric in that pattern because no tourists wanted to buy it. But I learned from different salespeople the exact description and origin of the pattern I wanted, so it was quite easy to go from stall to stall saying I wanted Urgutskie suzani, and it makes shopping so much easier when sellers don't try to interest you with this and that that you really don't want. It was in-and-out, and finally I was able to find exactly what I wanted, and get them for amazing prices. I was even congratulated by the owner of our hotel for getting them so cheap! He asked how much I paid and I said 15,000, and he said '50,000? Good price!' and I said 'No FIFTEEN' and he couldn't believe it. He said it was local price, and that tourist price is MUCH more. So Bukhara was a good place for my haggling :)
In Bukhara we found a nice restaurant that had the first good fried laghman since we left Bishkek, and we found the mauseleum where Somoni was buried, the man who the Tajik currency is named after. Both Bukhara and Samarkand are predominantly Tajik towns, so it's not surprising for him to be there. We also found yet more medressas that we hadn't seen the first time around. It was really hot, but not as bad as we'd been expecting after all the stories.
We took a night train to Tashkent, and it was probably one of the most uncomfortable nights I've ever had. The train was HOT, and it was a newer sleeping car so instead of windows that pulled down to open, the tilted out, so there was barely any breeze. A bunch of policemen took up the sitting room under our beds, so we had to lie in bed the whole time while they were all underneath drinking and doing crossword puzzles. When we arrived in Tashkent I was terribly sweaty, tired because I hadn't really slept, and super dehydrated. When we arrived in Tashkent the hotel we wanted had no double room, so then I really wanted to cry and not have to find another place. We decided to go to a Lonely Planet guesthouse that it said was hard to find, and we got a taxi driver who looked at the map and seemed to have some idea where he was going. He didn't of course, and didn't believe when I told him he was going the wrong way. Finally we just got out because he couldn't find it, and luckily we weren't too far from where we were supposed to be. We found a nice driver who knew the place exactly and dropped us off there for free. It was $15 per person per night, but it had air conditioning and breakfast and I was way too narky to want to find another place.
I took a nap and a MUCH needed shower, and then we wandered around Tashkent some more. We spent 6 days in Tashkent in total in winter and Mike really didn't want to have to go back, but I thought there were still some things we could see. It was the hottest it had been the whole trip so we didnt feel like doing much, but the best thing was Aqua Park, possibly Central Asia's only worthwhile waterpark. Lonely Planet said it was 3000 sum ($2), but the price had gone up to 15,000 sum for 3 hours. We paid it and dogeared the page as yet another complaint to write to Lonely Planet about, but really enjoyed a few different swimming pools and some much needed tanning time.
We repacked our bags and caught an early morning flight to Istanbul. I worried that I might have some problems at the airport, as I had a felt rug, 2 antique pieces of fabric and a bullet from the Tajik-Afghan border in my bag, but it turned out that Mike was the one with the problems.
In his words...'At the airport in Tashkent, I went through all various checks until I go to the Passport Control. The guy behind the desk looked at my passport for a split second before telling me in Russian that there was a 'problem.' My passport, apparently, didn't work and I needed to pay the guy some money to get through. I suddenly lost all ability to understand anything he said at the mention of money and played dumb. I knew my passport was fine, just as it has been for the last 10 years. The guy called his supervisor who then tried to tell me I didn't have a visa. I pointed it out to him. Then he told me that I didn't have the correct stamp. i pointed it out to him. Finally, he dragged me off in the direction of a third guy. This one spoke some English and then tried to tell me that the picture in the passport wasn't me. Usually, this is an understandable mistake. The picture was taken when I was 16, I have short hair and no beard. This time, though, I had shaved my beard off and had an haircut so for the first time in years I actually DID look like my passport picture! I explained how time works and that no man is left unaffected. This didn't deter them... now it was a challenge. I wasn't going to pay them a penny, but they couldn't put so much effort in for nothing. Their last trick was to claim my passport was fake. I stood my ground and told them I'd wait for them to verify. Finally, they gave in and threw my documents back at my with contempt. '
Thus ended almost one year in Central Asia. All in all, it was a great experience, but I can't say I'd recommending life in Bishkek to anyone.
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