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Published: March 20th 2014
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I was buying one way tickets the whole time. It worked out better that way 'cuz I could decide a few days in advance how I felt and ramble on if and when(ever) I wanted to. When my lover, Lucia had to go back to work I wanted to hang out in Porto for a few more days so I let her go. I needed the space and time to decide my next step.
The full moon was coming and I was ready to step off the map again. I wanted to visit the place of my most desired location since I left there when I was a few months old. My birthland: Kathmandu. High in the Himalayas Nepal beckoned me return at the time of my 36th year since birth.
So I was given a birthday present from my sweet momma and I booked a ticket from Lisbon to Kathmandu via Istanbul.
I had about 24 hours to enjoy Istanbul, Turkey. I would meet the most beautiful woman I have ever seen within the first few hours.
Fresh off the plane, I went into a Pizzeria with all my bags and I told the manager I
was looking for a hotel just one night. He showed me a table where I was taken care of and he called his brother to set me up for a hotel.
Then my waitress came out. She had thick black hair flowing to the middle of her back. Huge brown eyes and a smile that looked like she could warm the winter and the world. Her darker skin reminded me of a coconut. I was taken in. I asked her where she was from and she said Jordan. I said I was from Hawaii and it was love at first sight.
The one that got away...
Remember that scene in the original Star Wars series where Hans Solo, the bounty hunter, walks into the alien bar and there is a lot of funky crazy action going on? He meets Jabba the hut and there are tweaky aliens doing their own thing and nevertheless having an awesome time... Well that's how I felt walking into the bar I discovered in Istanbul.
I wandered around town eventually finding a back alley music scene. There were several venues large and small. This one had a special vibe. There I
sat in the corner and sipped Tuborg beer as I watched beautiful Persian people dancing arm and arm in rotating circles. The men held handkerchiefs high in the air and they all swayed to a happy beat.
And the music!
The band was insane. They had a three piece musician set with one guy on tambourines and a bongo looking drum, another on a mandolin and an acoustic guitar player. There was a lovely princess looking woman wailing in Turkish. She seemed she would sing her heart to heaven.
I had never heard such a wild array of ethnic musical mixtures coming together but keeping its own uniqueness. I stayed up for a while and cruised back late to my hotel to get ready for my last (and only) day in the city.
By the daylight I walked around, crossed the sea from Europe into Asia; you know, the usual.
Then I happened upon a Moslem Mosque near the Hagia Sophia and it was their praying time. I went in with the masses. I was able to sit back at a respectful distance and observe the ceremony. What I first noticed and respected was their
devotion. Young men that could have been my brother bowed their heads to the carpet; giving over and letting go of control.
I thought: how beautiful. To simply give over and let go of everything. To honor a higher spirit and faith in knowing that everything will work out well. At this mosque there was dancing, chanting and bowing. It was great to see how other people practiced spirituality.
I must have been grounded and present because right as I was getting up to leave a Turkish man came over to me, introduced himself and pleasantly shook my hand. He was giving off light and peace in his vibe. He spoke a bit of English to me and then suddenly he was so moved by what he was saying that he started to speak in Turkish.
He basically wanted to thank me from the bottom of his heart for coming and seeing his spiritual world. He exclaimed a bunch in Turkish and then smiled, looked me deep in the eyes as he shook my hand saying, "One Allah. One Allah!" To say I was touched would be an understatement.
I was thinking about it all day
after that. Why had he chosen me? I was thinking earlier how wonderful the world is and how vast yet connected and then this man comes to me and shares his passion in the moment. Perhaps he was affirming that we are all one. That respect and love are what we need to find ourselves and to find love. It was all so simple in that space.
I walked out of the Mosque & Istanbul a changed man from that single experience. It softened me. I was feeling blessed, by something. I continued my adventure refreshed.
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