Day One - Istanbul - The journey begins

The morning started at Frankfurt airport with a Haagen-Dazs ice-cream cone. This was a good start to a day that would be great. Once on the plane, I started talking to a Turkish lady who was sitting next to me - who at first thought I was Turkish, which I thought was kinda cool. She told me in broken english the best places to go in Turkey and about how great Istanbul was. She was so nice, which I've found is a very Turkish charactrisic. I really don't like to generalize so I won't say all Turkish people are nice - because I don't know, and I'm sure there are bad apples out there, but everyone I've interacted with in these first couple days has been really nice.

So I step of the airplane and get my Turkey Visa. This was the easiest thing ever - I walked up to a booth that had no one in line gave the guy $20USD and he stuck the sticker in my passport. No form or anything like that - it was great. The immigration line was long, but also a painless process. So I grab my bag, walk out, and see a Citibank ATM. Queue angels signing.

When I went to Italy after college, I landed with like $5USD in my wallet. This was stupid, but I figured it'll all work, and it did. This time I had a fair about of dollars, but no Lira. This made life easy and cheaper than using one of those changer people.

Taking the metro out of the airport to the city was easy and upoun getting out of the train, I am greated by a Turkish man giving me directions to my hostel. He was just out there and looked to be helping people find there hostel. I ran into a couple Americans on the walk because all of the hostels are next to each other. I'm saying at the Bahaus House.

Going to my room, I realized I had forgotten a pad lock, which I was able to buy at the front desk. This helped affirm my belief that if I had forgotten anything, I'd be able to buy it.

I dropped my bag off then was off to sight seeing. I went to the Blue Mosque, which is one of the most see tourist attractions. It was very impressive from the outside and cool inside as well. It's an active mosque so people were going in and out praying, which was cool to see.

Next I walked over to the Grand Bizhaar and saw a girl that was staying at the hostel. She's been traveling for about 5 months and told me some cool stories about the Trans-Siberian rail-road, making me a little disappointed about not being able to take it. We had a doner for dinner that came in at $2TL which is about a $1.30USD. It was alright. We had sought out the cheapest doner we could find, and the taste corresponded. After dinner, we went on a quest for beer. We saw a couple places that were a bit pricey ($6.50USD a beer) so explored further only to get really lost. Eventually we made it back to the hostel.

I went back to my room and discovered the hostel sold beer!!! And it was only $5TL. This is why I love hostels. So I sat next to two German girls and a guy from the Netherlands that were all very cool. We discussed many things, and of course, Obama came up, I had seen the ad on the right while on the train and wondered what it was for. They all supported Obama as he appears to have a lot of love abroad. Among the other topics was the difference between East and West German. Both of the girls that I was talking to were from East Germany and were 14 in 1989 when the wall came down. They explained how they felt different from the West and how some of those differences still persist today. These discussions is what I was looking for from this trip. A couple beers later I was fast asleep.

Conclusions of the day:

• (While on the plane) OMG - I'm so not ready for this. What have I gotten myself into?
• (When I see the Citibank ATM) This won't be so bad.
• (When I find the hostel) I can so do this.
  
• (When I have dinner with the Aussie that's been traveling for 5 months) This is going to be amazing.