Couchsurfing, 10k and Gregory Porter

Last weekend i had my first couchsurfing hosting experience, I took a hitchhiker first time in my life and I fell on the ground while running my 10k. First two experiences where rather fun, and the last one - quite painful and it's still lasting. But i learned a few lessons. First, if everyone is taking the left side of the road - follow  them. Right is not always better than left. Second - if you fall down, just get up and run. Momentary pain is sharp, but walking back(or giving up)- is shameful. Of course, if you have a broken bone, don't follow my last advice. But if it's just bruised palms or bloody knees - you can run 8K more. This might sound a bit extreme, but in life we rarely fall literally - but we might get our ego bruised. If the goal is worth it - everyone can handle a little bit suffering.
This flight resulted in me not going to tango lessons. Having a free Sunday evening, I ended up going to the best concert I've been in my life - Gregory Porter. And in live he sounds way better than on records. But anyway, just listen to his "liquid spirit" or "musical genocide". And this concludes to the third lesson - bad experiences can lead to good ones.

Stray cats and dogs of Istanbul

Lying lazily on a pavement or a bench (sharing it equally with other people) Istanbul is filled with cats. Even when you can't see one, you can smell it (not in good way). Few on the roof of the fish market near Galata bridge enjoying a company of the seagulls. One playing in a window of a jewelry store, or posing for tourists near Blue Mosque, or begging for food near architecture museum. Or lying on a chair while its owner stands nearby. All these little moments made my stay at the Istanbul even more amazing. I didn't ask the locals about the cat cult, but clearly there is one. You can even get souvenir magnets with cats there. But it's not only about cats. There are quite a lot dogs in the streets of Istanbul as well. But usually they are just lying on the ground, not caring for anything. None of them seems hungry and the reason for this are the piles of dog food in the streets I noticed around 5pm. And the chips in the ears of the dogs prove they are not homeless at all. They are just not imprisoned in homes of their owners, that's why there are so many of them in the streets of the Istanbul.

Last day, Istanbul

Leading double life - being tourist at day and dancing salsa at night - requires lots of energy from me. I ended up being very tired. So, tired that I can't sit down to describe the things I've seen during the day. So, this is the second day I'm in this state. Now just trying to "pay my debts" while sitting in the hostel's bar, drinking the beer and watching the sun go down into the misty cloud over the roof tops of Taksim district.
I went to four workshops today after getting to sleep for four hours. Just before that I partied until 5am, barely walked to my hostel with bloody toes and my feet one size bigger. I almost could put my shoes on.
Yesterday was a fruitful day in a sense of covered kilometers - Topkapi palace. A beautiful place, I would recommend for history and ornaments lovers, but very cool for inside expositions.
From the first day of this vacation I realized one thing, but waited for it to confirm. Yes, you can hook on to travels. Yes, new places you see excite you. But the best thing you have to experience - is meeting new people while on vacation. Staying at hotel and traveling on your own makes it harder, but staying at the hostel makes the difference. - it's just that simple. I hope I have made some good friends after this vacation, with whom a friendship will last longer than this week.
The sun has colored the feather shaped clouds in a pale orange. Many layers of rooftops - mosques, just old buildings decorated with tv antennas and pigeons, and seagulls - all drowning in golden bright light. Watching this sunset makes me realize it's a perfect place and moment for someone like me to be.

Big market experience

Handsome and charming Turkish men pulling tourists into their trap to buy spices or carpet. They usually speak pretty well in English and with non-Turkish accent. You can consider this being a sign that things they sell are overpriced. That could be my short description for the Spice market and Grand Bazaar.  However annoying this may sound, you can't skip those two when visiting Istanbul. Just for the experience of this colorful and loud mass of people. This might not be different from any big market in any other country. There you can overpay for the goods or get into people traffic jam or just observe how much passion they put into trying to sell anything. Yes, anything and this applies to all corners for Istanbul. It's like they were made for selling. To make it happen they could promise you discounts and then forget they did it when it comes to paying. Some clients don't argue and end up overpaying, others stand for the themselves and usually the sellers don't argue too much at this point. Devious and righteous at the same time. If you let them fool you, they will, if not - they won't.

Keeping it cultural

I have to pay my debts otherwise they will start accumulating a huge interest rate. Yes, a debt to myself to write something here. Memories are described best once they are fresh, right after the adventurous day, not a day after tomorrow.
Yesterday I stayed on a diet. After eating a breakfast, I had only a chocolate bar at lunch and the a dinner at 6pm. I was eating culture and history all day. In a form of Hagia Sofia and archeological museum and the Istanbul cisterns, and dancing dervishes. The cisterns was the most impressive experience, only it could have been a lot quitter, less schoolchildren. Their chat was echoing really badly.
Dancing dervishes was a relaxing ecperience though an unplanned one. We were served tea and then presented with some books about Quran, about the latter one I'm still confused.
And then more salsa dancing at night.

Getting sunburned in Bosphorus

I know I have not been writing for two days. I'm going to fix that now, otherwise I will forget everything with this crazy lifestyle - running in the streets all day and then dancing in the parties at night.
The third day was dedicated to a boat trip along the Bosphorus. We took a longer one. Maybe, it takes you farther, but you spent a lot time on the coast. I guess besides seeing the Black Sea, it's not worth your time. The day was very nice, but when you are on the boat, it may still feel cold. Or you can get sunburned, as we did. So, now I'm red on my face.
This boat trip takes you to a small town, which has castle ruins and a military base. You can see a Black Sea from there and eat in local restaurants. Owners of the restaurants might get too enthusiastic trying to get you into their place. They might promise discounts, even show you a menu with fake prices just to get you sit down at their table. Just remember, you can always negotiate.
The day was ended with a nice touch of walking the Istiklal street - windowshopping. It started raining really heavily, but only after we got back to our hostel. And a cherry on top for the day was a salsa pre-party. No wonder I was exhausted to write anything.

2nd day in Istanbul

Istanbul greeted me today with a wide range of things. After having a breakfast with my room mates at the hostel's bar, sunshine was replaced by rain,but still relatively warm compared to Lithuanian weather. I had to buy an umbrella with smiley faces. Me and taiwanese girl decided to team up for city explorations - I hadn't seen anything , so I was ok with anything she wanted to see. There was Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia and Grand bazaar on our goal list for starters. But our plan got influenced by circumstances. There was a major power outage in almost all Turkey for more than a half of day. Metro's were not working at all, no electricity in most shops, some did have generators. Walking to our goal was not the only option, but probably the most reasonable one. And when you are in a new country, you can get lost, or you can get sidetracked by many things. And we were. So, yes having a good time was a reasonable way to fight rain and the power outage. And once we reached the Galeta tower, the rain was already defeated. The we headed towards the Galeta bridge through the narrow streets of local industry on display. It seems like there in Istanbul they like to dedicate a whole street for one kind of business. Anything from cutting glass and plastics to selling music instruments or making wedding invitation cards. At the bridge in the fish market we had our lunch - a fish sandwich and after a short photo session we carried on. At this point it seemed that the rain was coming back and with heavy clouds. We were encouraged to hurry to the other side. There almost always being at the edge of feeling lost and knowing where we are we walked to the Blue Mosque, though we were first aiming for Hagia Sofia. Going inside is a whole new experience. First if you are a woman, you have to cover your hair, and if you wear really tight trousers, you have to get a skirt. The when everybody takes off their shoes, a heavy stink of everyone's feet greet you. Those who come there for prayers actually wash their feet outside. But tourists don't. After mosque, we went to Hagia Sofia only to realize it was already closed. But the surroundings are still very nice. Next stop was to watch sunset. So, we made it there, but the sun has hidden in the clouds, so it was only the pastel shades of sky. From there we already could use a tram and hurry to pickup my late friend from the airport station. Funny thing, she was not tired at all carrying her 10 kilos bag as she was always running in front of us.