Salam, Turkey. (journal one)

So I started a post yesterday, and then I fell asleep, and then it was deleted. It’s all very complicated. But I’m writing one about yesterday, and then one about today too! So this is my day 1 post!

Being tired before you start traveling is not likely the best way to start traveling. I think it’s actually the opposite of what you should do. However, after calling Delta and the travel agent at 2AM because I didn’t even have a ticket... for many reasons it seems, there was definitely not a single second to sleep. Leaving at 5AM is also not cool. Just before arriving in Toronto, I checked my phone and I finally had a ticket. Phew. Perhaps I was just lucky, but it literally took 15 minutes from the time I arrived at Pearson to the time I got to my Gate. I thought that was pretty incredible, but I wasn’t complaining. One thing was that I still had 3 hours until my flight left... so thank goodness for the internet!

The rest of my traveling went quite smoothly and seamlessly. Pearson to JFK, JFK to Istanbul, both on Delta, and Istanbul to Gaziantep on Turkish Airlines. The last flight was by far the best. Nicest seats, best food, etc. Note to self - fly Turkish Airlines next time, Delta = not so awesome. I met a guy studying in Istanbul from the US on the second Delta flight (hello if you see this) who seemed pretty chill. Though I’m thinking both of us were way too tired to talk a lot. And when I did talk it was kind of a mumbling nonsense traveling talk. I’m sure I sounded like pretty much the coolest person ever. For about 3 seconds I thought they has lost my luggage... however, I discovered it wasn’t lost at all, merely hiding in a different section, thank goodness. So nothing too exciting to report there.

After arriving in Gazientep, two incredibly cool and helpful teachers (a couple, been married only 9 months) picked me up. They were cool and helpful for many reasons, which I shall mention. First, the view of walking off the plane. Absolutely freaking amazingly awesomely beautiful. If there’s one thing you should be jealous of, it’s the landscape. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It felt like so much to take in all at once. Mainly flat, very desert like with small green planes, large mountain type rocks. Just, wow. We later stopped at a restaurant called Yesemek where I got to try some traditional Turkish food. It felt like so much culture in just about 1 hour. It was amazing, so amazing. And a drink called Ayran that consists of just water, salt and yogurt. Very different, yet good. And if you’re wondering why on earth I’m eating yogurt as a vegan... well, I can say that I can’t call myself vegan right now, but perhaps that will be a future post as to what makes it pretty much impossible here.

After our amazing Turkish meal, we headed to Adiyaman, which is about 2 and a half hours from Gazientep and the city that I’ll be seeing the most for the next 2 and a half months. On the way, I saw so many very un-North American things. Animals with no fences at all everywhere, on the streets, with shepherds. It was really cool to see though. I’ve never seen so many goats in my life. And gypsies! Groups of them just all dance around in fields. It’s quite incredible to see. I wanted to go get a picture with them, not sure if it would be advised or not!

Once we arrived in the city, I realized (although I was told before) that it is not one of the more developed cities of Turkey. There are 3 levels of development here, well developed (Istanbul, Gazientep), mid-development, and less-developed (Adiyaman). This doesn’t make it less safe here really, but it does mean you can definitely tell from many of the buildings how poor people are. The mix of poor and very rich is quite strange. We have only gone to quite high class restaurants... which are a bit hard to find, because from the front of the building they don’t necessarily look very classy.

Anyways, we made it to a hostel. Had some tea (which, I learned is something that happens every single time you sit down) and talked about where I’d be staying that night. I couldn’t stay at the camp because it doesn’t actually start until Monday and there was lots of cleaning and things to do. The hostel took my bags, which... I thought was fine, but while we were drinking tea some of the Turks were talking, which turned into a sort of argument... not that I had any idea what they were saying. When they were done the teacher that had picked me up from the airport turned to me and said “Tonight, you stay with me”. I don’t think this gave me a choice of whether or not to actually stay with them, but either was fine with me.

We got to their house, got my stuff ready, and then it finally hit that I hadn’t slept in about 50 hours and should probably do so. I started writing the original blog post for this day... but it was... deleted after I fell asleep with Fazil (my MacBook) at my side.

I felt like I have taken in so much culture in just one day. Less than one day, 6 hours to be exact. There will be so much more adventure. All I can say is “Wow, I love Turkey”.

 

Random shot from today. Wishing I had a better camera with me. There really wasn't much to take pictures of... but there will be lots to come!