The Communist Bloc
Well I have officially been everywhere I wanted to see in Istanbul times 3. I probably been to the blue mosque more times than I have been to church in the last five years. The last day I was there was on Friday, which is Sunday for muslims. I sat in its courtyard and listened to the call to prayer that makes for a highly surreal sensation. The men carefully wash their feet outside making sure not to dirty there feet before entering the mosque. The blue mosque is for lack a better phrase symmetrically perfect. Every angle you look at it you can find perfection. I also visited the ayosofia, but was slightly jaded on the empire thing. There are so many other sites that I have seen such as the Topapki castle, Basilica Cistern, new mosque, spice bazaar, the tower……..
As far as the night life has been in Istanbul it was a bit of a bust. At the hostel where i stayed it was about 5 lira a beer and not such a great deal since the going rate is about 1.5:1 in American dollars. Now that I am more crafty I have recruited most of my fellow hostel mates to drinking super market beer on the streets just across the way from an ancient prison house which now contains the four seasons. One night however we made the attempt to go out. There is a district here called Taxcism or some variation of that spelling. Two Irish boys and two Americans were dead set on finding the pub going heart of this 15 million plus city. We went out on a Wednesday to find almost everyplace completely abandoned till the weekend. The irishmen stopped by an irish pub and asked for the name of an establishment that would still be hopping. Our inquiry led us to a spot called The Mask. This place was phenomenal. It was a live karaoke bar where you sing with a live band, but it was all turkish pop. One could still appreciate the universality of a good riff however. We met a group of Turkish women and the irish boys took a huge liking to them. All spoke for a while and the irish began to dance with them. After an hour I began to feel paranoid for several reasons. First this being a muslim culture touching women, even in this modern city, can be frowned upon. Second, there are scams about that fit this particular scenario where drunken tourists are charged 750 euro for dancing with local girls. After looking around and realizing out of 400 people we were the only ones dancing. Exit left. We made it out unscathed by the heathens.
The last night was uneventful as well except for the fact that two finnish guys that I had met 2 weeks before had sent me and email and were going to be in istanbul. We met up and toured then exchanged emails with there promise to visit the states in the next few years.
I left the city at 10 oclock at night headed for Sofia in Bulgaria. I had heard from 1 or 2 that there are some good places to stay here. I hopped on the train and got a 6 bed cabin all to myself. I sweat, tossed and turned all night. I was asked for my ticket and passport at least 6 times before making it close to the city center. Sofia……with out any research you can tell that this was once an industrial hub of the USSR. Hulking skeletons of the communist dream are everywhere. Giant 50 track rail systems now defunct lay and rot as there is no money to remove them. Massive industrial buildings now serve as terrariums and reminders of the superpowers fall. I look out over the remnants of the city and see a row of block housing serving as what I could see as the city center. Without a partner in crime or a freakin clue of where to go I decided to skip this place.
I made the next train to Belgrade, Serbia in the hopes that I would make it to Budapest by today. The signs of war are still evident all along the countryside with bombed out buildings, some burned military vehicles and the slight sense of tension in the air. I was given a short history lesson on the Kosovo region and told not to bring it up to the local serbs as it is a point of tension.
My eurail pass failed me again. I was required to pay for this leg of the journey yet again! I nervously inquired what was the cost of this 10 hour train ride from Sophia to belgrade. 1116 dinars to be exact which thankfully worked out to be 12 euros. I did have euros on me thankfully. Not that I would necessarily be inclined to pay any more as this shit box stunk, had no toilet paper, water food or anything of sorts. Its a cattle trailer.
Not to spoil the view of communist efficiency or anything (ha) we arrived 3 hours late to belgrade and my train to budapest had past its departure time. From the view of the train belgrade is actually quite lovely and modern. Everything appeared to be clean and in working order, so I was not afraid to go have a look about for a hostel. I did inquire about the train to budapest and found that it also was running behind! A mad dash to platform 1 with at least 3 minutes to spare.
A local Serbian spoke with me on the train, an animator by trade he was on his way to something called exit fest? It is a giant 4 day concert where the bands play almost 24 hours a day pretty much everyone that you can think of on the radio plays there. He gave me two things: a friendly piece of advice to not say that I am american and a short history lesson from the Serbian side of the Kosovo conflict. I wont go into great detail here but for him we started it by destabilizing and taking away the heart of their culture which the turks had done for 500 years. They even have a museum with scraps of american planes that were shot down during the conflict. He said he didn’t really give a shit on a person to person basis, but could tell he was not happy with our politics. You see his family survived the onslaught of American style shock and awe that happened only 11 years ago which many of his friends were killed. I was humbled by our conversation and we parted was with a hearty handshake.
I have arrived in Budapest and will write more tomorrow, but I can already say that like most of the cities I have been it is amazing. There money seems pretty worthless though as I am carrying 30000 units of i dont know what they are called, but a pack of smokes is like 150 of them and that seems okay.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
