Soft Landing in Istanbul

I left Israel early this morning. My service is complete. What have I felt the last couple weeks? Mostly a mixture of relief, relaxation, and some nostalgia especially the last few days as I said goodbye to everyone. I’ve done this a few times now, so it’s not as difficult as the first time, when I left my job in 2016, which was really hard. At that time, I had this sense of “why am I doing this?” even though I knew exactly why.

One last walk up to my apartment building

Anyways, I got to the airport about 5:30am and prepared my stack of forms to present to the authorities. I have never had to fill out and bring so many forms with me before. Here’s what I had:

1. Exit form required by Israeli government
2. Entrance form required by Turkish government
3. Negative PCR test required to board plane
4. Greenpass issued by Israeli government stating I have been vaccinated
5. Security screening pass which more or less testifies I am not a bad guy and should be treated nicely in security
6. Visa to enter Turkey

The first four are related to COVID. Even the lady at the check-in counter was confused and had to ask me a few times for different forms. It was mind-boggling to say the least. I got to the security checkpoint, ready to bust out my security screening pass, but it was not even needed. I zipped right through the screening, not even a question about who I am, what I’m doing, where I’m going, what I had for lunch. Maybe the pass did the trick, who knows.

I get to my gate and check my boarding pass, which does not indicate which boarding group I’m in. So, armed with one of the best tools a person can have — ignorant bliss — I hopped in line, hoping for the best. I asked the guy behind me, just in case, and he said that anyone could board whenever they wanted. I chatted with him a little more (his name was Ahmad) and found out that he lives in Israel and goes to university in Istanbul. How fortuitous.

I start asking him questions about how to get to the city, where to get a SIM card and where to exchange cash. He told me that I could do all those things in the city and that he was going in the same direction as I was and he offered to share a taxi. So, I said sure why not. Somewhere along the taxi ride as we were chatting, I realized I just landed in a country I’ve never been in, got into a taxi with someone I’d just met, didn’t even get a SIM card or exchange any cash, and was just going on trust. This is the moment where I both amazed and scared myself at the same time. I didn’t even know this guy, but we chatted a bit in the airport and I had a good feeling about him.

Anyways, it all turned out well for the most part. I thought my new friend had paid the taxi for both of our rides (his stop was earlier than mine), but I either misunderstood or was taken for a ride literally by the taxi driver when he wanted another 40 lira from me. Mind you, this is only $5, but I still didn’t have a good feeling about the driver. He had all the power to take advantage of me, so I don’t know if he did or not. Another person on the street came to my “aid” as the taxi driver and I were having a minor debate. This “helpful” guy translated and the taxi driver got his money. Then the guy told me that my hotel was actually a 25 minute walk away and that he could take me. Right…so you’re a taxi driver too, huh? That’s when I knew the jig was up.

He had already taken one of my bags and loaded it into his car. When someone targets me and gets pushy, my radar immediately goes up and I try to step back from the situation, which is exactly what I did. I held up one finger and wagged it a little, saying “no” and he got the point. I sat down to regroup and figure out what to do — I had no internet but I did have one hand-drawn map from Google Maps that I sketched out the previous night. I knew I wasn’t far from my hotel, I just had to figure out how the heck to find it. I love my maps.

Taksim Square, Istanbul – the circle in the bottom right is “Taksim Square” and my hotel is the star on the left

I sit down and try to get my bearings. There is a girl next to me, so I ask her if she speaks English and she replies “No”. To which I then reply with a smile, “but you just said no”. Now this is where I had another Chris Tucker – Jackie Chan moment. The next thing she says to me is in Farsi, “man Irani hastam” — meaning “I am Persian”. BOONGGG! It is true, Persians are good at detecting other Persians.

After that shock wore off, I said “great me too” in Farsi! What luck. So I showed her my map and she said she didn’t know, but took me over to her family and asked her dad to help me out. So, they helped point me in the right direction. I found a currency exchange shop and was able to exchange some cash which put me a little more at ease. I was still disoriented, but found a street I recognized from my map. I also found a cellular shop there too, so I hopped in to get some info on the SIM cards.

I didn’t buy anything yet, but before I left I asked them if they knew where I could find my hotel. I showed them my map and they just laughed at me. You guys can laugh all you want, this thing saved me today. Eventually they pointed me down the right road. I told them I’d find my hotel, get some food, then come back to their shop and buy a SIM card, which I did.

I finally find my hotel, which wasn’t far at all. I make it inside and show the hotel person my map and he also laughs and asks why I didn’t just call him. Heh, funny guy. He is from Kurdistan. I think he’s the first Kurd I’ve met. It’s interesting, people from all over the world seem to either live here or be here right now. A lot of Persians too. For some reason I feel like I could easily be in Iran, even though I’ve never been there before. I can read the signs and more or less make out what they say, which is nice. If this is the closest I ever come to being in Iran, good enough for me.

The lobby – it’s a boutique hotel

Another thing I’ve learned is that I absolutely stand out here, big time. I have my Steelers hat, jeans, puffy blue jacket, glasses, and my papers in my hand. If I make the slightest bit of eye contact with a shop or restaurant owner, they engage me. In many cases, eye contact is not even required. The first interaction is often “Where you from?” to which I always answer “California”. As soon as they ask this question, I already know they don’t care and are just trying to reel me in. So I play the game a little and have some fun when I can.

One guy outside of his super market asked me “where you from?” followed by “what are you looking for?” I told him I’m from California and I want some bananas. He replied, “but we don’t have bananas”. So I said, “what kind of market doesn’t have bananas?” to which he repeated himself. So I said, “darn”, snapped my fingers and kept moving. He laughed. It’s good to have fun with people sometimes. They know it’s a numbers game and I doubt they take it personally, so might as well keep it light and make it entertaining.

This city has already made an impression on me. It blows Israel out of the water. Way more fun and interesting. The people seem friendlier and more relaxed. The sights, colors, sounds; the baqlava shops, bakeries, tea & spice shops. The food is awesome! Such variety and soooo cheap. You get double the food for half the price of Israel, which was absurdly expensive. The super-markets are dirt cheap too, so that feels great. About a third of the price of what you’d pay in Israel. I’ve had a couple delicious meals already, and they were only $8 or so including tip.

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  All kinds of tea

I’m staying near Taksim Square, which must be the heart of the city. There’s a big mosque right by it and there are some loud prayers being broadcast it seems on the hour. Get this, my hotel is only $25/night. I love Turkey. I had a tiny, and I mean TINY studio in Jerusalem for two nights and it cost almost $70/night.

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  The big mosque in Taksim Square

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I have an all-day tour of the city today, a 2-hour Bosphorous River “cruise” tomorrow afternoon and a couple free days. It looks like these two tours will actually happen, whereas the two I had planned in Israel were cancelled. I can finally officially be a tourist.

In between currencies (Israeli shequel – top, Turkish Lira – middle, US Dollar – bottom)