It's time to bring my blog back to life, as I'm traveling again. This time only for a month, though. My main destination are the ex-Yugoslavian countries, but I decided to fly to Istanbul first and then continue by train.
The Turkish hospitality is something amazing! They feed you, they take care of you, they really make you enjoy your stay. I'm couchsurfing with Ipek, who gave me her room to sleep in, while she sleeps in the living room. Her mother makes me breakfast every morning and now, while I'm writing this, she just brought me some pieces of water melon. Ipek, a 31-year-old woman, is not married, so she's still living with her parents. In this culture it's normal, but in Finland it would be considered weard.
Ipek's parents don't speak any English, but they've lived in Germany 30 years ago. So when Ipek is not around, we can communicate with smiles, gestures and "sehr gut"-type of German. Sometimes there are funny situations, like one morning when Ipek's mother told me about her children. "öğretmen, öğretmen" she repeated several times and I could only spread my hands as a gesture of not understanding. The word "schule" and some acting made me guess "teacher", and finally her grandson Umut confirmed "yes, teacher".
Istanbul is a huge city spreading over the hills on both sides of Bosphorus. The population is over three times the whole population of Finland! This is the first time I ever visit a muslim country. Well, Turkey and especially Istanbul are actually quite western, but it's still exotic for me to hear the calls to prayer and see some of the women covered with veils. My host family is also muslim, but not of a strict religious type. Every night I stay up talking with Ipek until 1 am, and our outlook on life seems quite similar. One night we went out for a tea in this neighbourhood, and her mother followed us and sat on our table. We are over 30, so it felt a bit baffling. As the saying goes "When in Rome, do as the Romans do", so I try to be respectful, but sometimes I don't know how to behave in this culture. It's also hard to understand that some coffeehouses are only for men.
I've visited bazaars, admired the splendor of Hagia Sofia, Topkapi palace and the Blue Mosque and refreshed myself at a hamam, a Turkish bath. Being washed by another woman was actually quite relaxing and didn't feel as weird as it may sound. Tonight I'm going to a Couchsurfing cruise on Bosphorus. It's going to be a big party with 400 people. I'm excited to meet a Dutch guy I met at a CS party in Warsaw some years ago, a Turkish guy who's learning Finnish (!), another Finnish girl... Through the Couchsurfing website I've received several messages from guys who want to meet me and practise their English, but I haven't met any of them yet.
I'm very bad with advance planning and making decisions. At the moment I have a train ticket to Belgrade for tomorrow night and a host waiting for me there. I've also found a host in Pristina, Kosovo. It's almost too easy to find CS hosts, as the first and only people I write to accept my request. People are even ready to leave their keys for me if they are not home when I arrive.
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