Blogs from Marmara, Turkey, Middle East - page 192

Aiesec Eskisehir was in charge with providing the trainees with accommodation, and what they offered us actually suited us quite well. It was a flat about 10 minutes away from Onder Dil, the Language School where we were going to teach. Our flatmates were two Turkish guys, rather dashing :PP, who could, unfortunately, speak very little English. Carmen and I spent the first 2 days scrubbing the place up and making it feel homey...as it was rather scruffy. Fatih, one of the students living with us took us one day to Onder Dil. This was actually Aiesec's job to introduce us to the school principal and show us around, but they never showed up. Apparently Fatih had studied at Onder Dil, so he was familiar with the school and even knew the principal. So, there ... read more

Last saturday I got the notion in my head that I'd like to do some walking... Bursa is cool and all but the constant stares and "hello"s one gets in a city get old real fast. After some quick consulting with my rudimentary map I decided that Balikesir would be a decent target: roughly 150km -- not too near and not too far. I had left most of my heavy gear (including walking shoes, socks and warm clothes) back in Istanbul and admittedly had too much useless gear with me (4 books!), but I figured I'd give things a shot and I could always bail if things got hairy. I bought a pair of socks, a loaf of "village" bread which looked like it wouldn't dry out too quickly, a kilo of grapes, some peanuts and ... read more

Bursa... It's changed somewhat since I went to school here back in '95: it's mostly gotten more crowded, but it's still teeming with charm. Six of my classmates got together on this past sunday to visit the school again; I invited myself to stay over, and I stayed in my old room with the new crowd for 3 days. It's hard to believe these guys are 9 years younger than me; I guess I'm getting old. The city has its back to a mountain so if you're willing to walk about 30 minutes uphill from the city center you find yourself in the middle of woods and streams. My kind of city. There's a big park (Kulturpark) which hosts many tea gardens which serve well-tended water pipes (my new-found favorite pastime). Everything is so central and ... read more

I think I've always had the romantic ideal of "leaving it all" and "seeing the world". At the beginning of 2004 my hitherto complicated life (work, family, girlfriend) suddenly got simplified and I found myself face to face with the first (and possibly last) chance to make the dream come true. After some haggling with my boss I obtained a year's unpaid leave of absence, which combined with roughly 2 months of accumulated vacation gives me 14 months to travel. In the weeks leading up to my departure I moved out of (and cleaned) my place, said my goodbyes to my family, notified my now-ex girlfriend, and worked my ass off to wrap up loose ends at work. My co-workers gave me a gift certificate for REI (a camping/travel gear store), I did my packing in ... read more

Sultanahmet is the tourist and backpacker centre of Istanbul. Ideally located in the historical centre of Istanbul, between Haghia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. I was amazed at just how tourist-modern it was; it initially reminded me of Gringolandia in Quito. It was quite a surreal experience walking home one evening listening to the call for prayer from the Blue Mosque; as I turned into the main tourist street the sound became intermingled and then literally drowned out by the sounds of Robbie Williams pumping from a local bar. My first night in Istanbul I was roped into the local nightclub experience, for this you have to leave the fantasia of Gringolandia and head out to Taksim, the throbbing heart of the cities nightlife. As an all male group of six we were turned away from ... read more