Day 10 in Turkey - Adventures in Istanbul

Wow!  10 days already, we can’t believe it.  It is unbelievable.  What a day we had! 

It seems that a lot of people are busy, so we will wait to divulge the answers to the “mystery photo’s” until later.

Hasan, one of Seyhan’s employees is a pretty funny guy.  He is tall, and likes to instigate trouble through sarcasm and joking around.  But when Seyhan asks him to do something, he transforms into a guy who follows orders meticulously.  He works 95 hours a week.  He is unique because he speaks I believe 4 languages.  The most valuable combination of languages he speaks is:  Arabic, English and Turkish.  Hasan is not from Turkey; We think he is from Saudi Arabia.  He said there are lots of people who speak Arabic and English because they learn English in school.  However, it is very difficult to find someone who speaks Turkish, English and Arabic.  He spends all of his time translating for patients and hospital staff.  He is single and used to live in Taksim - Istanbul.  He is the one who helped us to understand the public transportation system. 

You would think it would be easy to figure out the public transportation system here, but unfortunately it is not.  By this point, we have used all of the public transportation systems, except the buses. We found websites which described the various metro systems, trains, ferries and trams and they were helpful.  However, the one for the bus system STINKS.   Today, our adventures consisted of combining the metro(subway) with the bus.   Every time we have tried to ask Seyhan for help with understanding the buses she always says, “No, let me arrange something” – which is very nice of her.  However, it forces us to rely on her help with transportation and does not allow us to figure it out on our own.  She is always going beyond what she is technically required to provide for transportation.  What I mean is she could be accountable to management for some of the wonderful transportation arrangements she has made for us, that technically she shouldn’t have.  So we try never to abuse it.  Today, when we ran into her and we told her we were about to embark on a journey into the city using the public buses. She said, I won’t let you do that, at least let me arrange for your transportation there and then I will explain what you should take to get back.  One of her drivers took us to the big mall that we went to the other day and then one the way home we would use the subway and bus.  The mall is actually six floors tall instead of the four or five I initially thought.  The mall is located in an area called Sisili (north-west of Taksim). 

While at the mall, we spent time window shopping and just observing people around us in the mall.  In one of the stores we found some mannequins in a clothing store looked like this. Notice anything strange?  Not sure the reason behind it but maybe you might know more than us. 

FYI – Paul came with us from the hospital.  His wife had to stay at the hotel to finish working on a publication project.  He decided to come with us at the last minute.  You may see him in pictures or hear his voice on the videos we recorded.

We had lunch at the mall.  We opted for American food.  Burger King was good.  Out of all the choices available, it looked the best.  The KFC was another option to consider, but the chicken was very small portions, though I’m sure it would have been good.  OK, I have to admit it, we also had something else American.  To be honest though, I hadn’t had one of these for a long time, even back in the states.  We couldn’t resist buying a donut from Krispy Kreme.  Yes, they have Krispy Kreme.  LOL

After we left the mall, and we decided to walk to Taksim Square instead of taking the metro.  From what the driver indicated, we initially thought it would be a short walk to Taksim.  Guess their short walks in Turkey, are much different from ours. LOL It took us a little over an hour to get to Taksim from the mall.  We didn’t mind the distance.  It gave us a chance to see more of Istanbul. On the road to Taksim there were  lots of banks, perfume shops, various stores, cell phone stores, etc.  We also noticed a few of the shops were still closed because technically though Ramazan was ending, people were still traveling and not everything is open.  Monday, everything will be back up and running (as normal). 

 When we first arrived at the Taksim square, we went to Starbuks because it was the only public bathroom we knew of.  It can be hard to finding bathrooms here.   We had considered going to the hotel, adjacent to Starbucks to use the restroom in the lobby, but we discovered we would have to go through security to walk inside. Hence, why we opted for Starbucks.  Apparently, we weren’t the only ones with that idea right as we got finished a big bus of tourists stopped there as well to use the facilities.  Speaking of facilities…it is very common, when you find a public bathroom that it consists only of a hole in the ground with facet near and a bucket.  LOL.  This makes it very difficult for the girls as you can imagine.  As for the Starbucks, it had your normal toilets but it still took us by surprise.  From the outside it looked like what we would have here in the states where they have the unisex bathroom and only one person can go in at a time.  Nope, when you open the door it’s about the same size as one of those unisex bathrooms, but there are two stalls and a sink.  You are probably so…what’s so different out that.  Well…one stall is for the women and one stall for the men!  So both men and women are in there using the bathroom at the same time!  Then when you come out you have to share the sink with some strange man or woman.  LOL

Another advantage of Starbucks, is the free wi-fi.   We having been using our phones on airplane mode and just connecting to wi-fi to use our maps, GPS and contact people using Skype, etc.  So after we went to the restroom all three of us checked our email etc.

After Starbuckes we walked in Taskim Square, and enjoyed the breeze and the hustle and bustle of people.  The weather is always a little cooler here, so this was another reason why we wanted to come back. ( At the hotel, it is warmer and not as breezy.  You would think with our hotel being close to the water there would a nice cool breeze.) 

After Starbucks, we walked to the park (we showed pictures last time) to rest our feet.  Our feet were pretty sore.  We took a break, sat under some shade and just talked about all kinds of thing.  No concert today.  We watched the kids play in the park, and enjoyed the cool breeze.  After our feet were rested, we walked down Istiklal street.  

Istiklal street is a very long street.  It is a street that is ventured by, what it seems all of Istanbul.  The street is populated completely by people walking either north-east or south-west.  With the dense placement of bodies, you might think they would try to be efficient and align themselves either on the left side or right side.  Nope, not the case.  People seem to walk in any way they please.  There is no rhythm or reason as to how they walk down the street, so you have to pay attention.  There are train tracks in the middle of the street. Sometimes a trolley car will come down the street – having to beep incessantly for people to move, which they eventually do but not until the last second. 

There are also a few stray cars that try to drive down this people packed street.  Very poor decision on their part.  The drivers of the cars honk their horns – and of course no one moves out of the way. LOL Eventually, people will move but it’s a very slow process.  Cars inch through the crowd at about 0.00001 mph. This street is meant only for pedestrians, so I don’t know why the Turkish people still try to drive down it, but then there seems to be no enforcement of driving laws here in Turkey, so I guess why the hell not.  LOL. 

The buildings on each side were tall.  There were shops and stores of all kinds.  There were also banks,  vendors for ice cream, and all kinds of stores.  One vendor had these small spiderman figures (wall walkers) and he would throw them up on the wall, and the toys would gradually “walk” their way down the wall (kind of like a slinky – spiderman-style) – it was cool.    

Here is a few pictures from a cute shop we had to check out when we saw the cute ladybugs:

Right in the middle of all these shops was a Roman Catholic Church. 

While walking, we saw a boy street dancing while his sister or friends beat on a drum.  We took a video of it.  It was kind of interesting the way he danced.  A crowd surrounded him and clapped and cheered to encourage him to continue.

Picture above / video below

(let us know if you see something below to watch the video).  We can not see anything, but there are weird restrictions (online) in Turkey.  

FYI - we are restricted from using youtube and other possible solutions for uploading videos which might be another reason why this is not working.  I will be using my server for this instead.


So in order to get the video, please right click on the link below and save the video on your computer (or you could take a chance and click on it).  Then you can run it. Double click it to run it.  If the video is sideways, then you will need to use Real Player (which is free) to show the video.  If you need "RealPlayer" - google it and download it for free.  I would give you the link, but it would be a Turkish link.


http://www.jdceworld.com/streetdancer.mov

We also took a little video so you can see a little bit of what we experienced when walking down this street.

Here's the video for walking down the street.  Similar to above, right click it to save.  Then run it.


http://www.jdceworld.com/thestreet.mov

We walked back up the street at dinner time.  We chose to buy “Doner” – the meat in a burrito.  This time it was better.  When we asked for spicy, it actually was spicier than last time.  We like those.  They were enjoyable to eat. 

We left Taksim (or attempted to) at 6pm on the metro system.  We were going to use the instructions we received from Hasan to use the public transportation.  I reverse-engineered his instructions because he only provided them from the hotel.  I figured, if we follow them in the reverse order that we would arrive back at the hotel/hospital.  So the instructions in reverse order consists of the following:   taking the metro from Taksim to “4. Levent” and then taking a bus from “4. Levent” to the hospital.  Pretty easy instructions, or so we thought. 

We walked down some stairs in Taksim square to the entrance of the metro.  We followed signs to “4. Levent”.  We joked along the way, that we really just paid to walk our way to “4. Levent” underground because we kept walking and walking.  Our trip consisted of flat escalators (like in airports) and various turns for 5 – 10 minutes.  We then arrived at the entry point onto the underground metro.  When one pulled up in front of us – or to the left – we quickly ran to where the door was (with everyone else).  Only a few seats are available.  Most of the time you hold on to rails above you and there are monkey bar loops you can hold if you are short (which most of them are).  Standing room only, we held on as there were various stops.  We waited for our turn “4. Levent”, then proceeded off of the metro.

We looked for the exit this time.  It was a little bit difficult because there were two choices, (though I’m sure both exited to the streets).  We took the “Levent” exit, took the escalators up to the street. 

We looked for “500T” bus, as we were instructed this is the bus we need to arrive in Gebze (where our hospital is).  One happened to pull up right away.  We considered ourselves lucky to be able to get the bus so quickly.  We jumped on.  We paid the cheap fare of 1.50 TL (Turkish lira each).  It was standing room only, we grabbed the near monkey bar loop or the top rail bar to keep us from falling during acceleration or stops.  We tried to confirm we were going the correct way by looking at landmarks we knew and/or street signs.  We saw a few that looked familiar.  We justified we were going the right direction by noticing them.  It appeared we were going in the direction of the signs, as we expected the bus was going to residential stops that were parallel to the freeway/interstate highway.  We knew this also was a slightly different route than we had known before.  Our routes before were south from here and more direct.  So it was more difficult to confirm from landmarks and signs we were going the correct direction.  We were told also from Hasan that the bus route would take 45 minutes.  So we knew also that if we were on the bus longer than 45 minutes we had gone too far.  Of course, we had a map in our pocket to confirm the cities as well. 

After 25 minutes and several stops, we figured by now we should surely be able to recognize the landmarks.  The route, though different as it was, should have joined the normal route we have taken in the past.  So if that were the case, then we should be recognizing the sites around us.  This makes us decide to take out our map to try and confirm that we were on the right track.  We begin to think to maybe, we aren’t going the right way because we could not find the names on the map but we didn’t get too concerned about this, because not even the area where our hospital is at, is located on this map.  LOL. 

We arrive at a stop after 45 minutes.  We notice everyone is exiting the bus, but we know this isn’t our stop because we don’t recognize a single thing and the hospital is definitely not located here so the three of us decide to stay in our seats on the bus. We figure we will just ride it back around, or maybe not! The driver and the money collector at the front of the bus start saying things to us which of course sounds like gibberish and waving their hands horizontally.  We do think we understand one word out of all the jibberish which is “finish”.  OMG!!! They were kicking us off the bus!!!  Oh, crap!  In desperation, we exit the bus and it takes off leaving us in fumes to stand on the side of the interstate with a whole gaggle of Turkish people, none of whom speak English.  Oh, boy, now what!

So here we are 3 obviously lost Americans, standing in the middle of an interstate no less, trying to figure out how the heck we are going to get back to the hospital.  We know we can’t take a cab back, because it would be over 200 lira. So Paul starts going around trying to talk to the people with his (about 10 words) he knows in Turkish. Needless to say, it wasn’t successful.  He tried speaking English with them, and that too, was a bust.

So, we try asking a few people about either Gebze or the name of the hospital.  Most of them did not understand anything.  I find a business card for the hospital in my pocket.  We show this to a couple people.  We receive varying instructions on how to help.  Some said to go on the train, some said to go over on the buses in the middle of the street, some said to go over to buses in the north side of the street.  There were buses in 3 different areas of the street.  There was the bus stop where we were.  There was another set of bus stops in the middle of the street on the other side of some stairs.  A third set of bus stops were on the north side of the road a distance to the right.  Then there was a train stop to the north adjacent to the street. 

 We decide to take the a pedestrian bridge that crossed over to the other side of the interstate and start asking people over on that side to see if they could help us better.   We try talking to a few people on this side with no luck.  We even talk to a police officer but we really can’t understand hardly anything he is saying, but act like we do as not to be rude.  Paul says he has a calling card, and we see a pay phone.  We all decide it is best to call Hasaan.  Paul walks up to the first phone. Types in the phone card number and then Hasan’s.  It works, it’s ringing!  Hasan answers the phone, Paul say’s, “Hey, there!  We must have taken the wrong bus!”  Then the phone starts making this terrible noise.  So we have to hang the phone up and wait for the other phone to become available.  We call him back.  He confirmed what we thought- our bus got on the wrong direction.  He confirmed that the instructions we had given him were correct – that we should get back on the “500T” bus and go the correct direction.  We had taken the “500T” bus to the last stop in the wrong direction.  He confirmed if we took the “500T” bus in the correct direction, we need not make any transitions to any form of transportation and it would take us all the way to the hospital (the bus stop anyway). 

We found the “500T” bus right away.  Thank goodness we didn’t have to wait long.  We took a guess at the bus stop.  We chose the northern most set of bus stops.  There were the three choices.  So good choice,  we jumped out in front of the bus so that he couldn’t leave.  Because he had picked up some passengers.  He let us on and we paid our fare. 

The guy who took our fare actually spoke a little English.  From our experience so far, it seems that 5% of the people know a little English.  By that we mean they know a couple words in English.  No grammar or sentence composition skills, but at this point we appreciate even understanding words.   We can always use our hands to point, and fingers to represent the numbers we do not remember the names of LOL – or to confirm our pronunciation of the words we do know.  So, the guy asked where we were going.  We said “Gebze”.  He asked for more fare, he said that is too far.  LOL.  It was still cheap fare.  We were just glad he confirmed the area to which we were traveling. That definitely was a good sign.

We now knew the bus ride home would definitely be longer than  45 minutes seeing how we rode the bus 45 minutes in the wrong directions the first time so now it will be a total of 1 ½ hours to get home.  When we get on the bus it’s packed and stuffy! It’s standing room only. We grab the railing and brace ourselves for the long journey home. Although keeping a good sense of humor during all of this, Staci and I are starting to get tired and worn out with this whole bus ordeal, but Paul, he is LOVING this.  We can tell this whole bus debacle is his favorite part the trip. As we ride, he tells us about how he use to ride the buses all over Columbia when he and his family were there as missionaries. He talked about how riding the bus was a great way to really get to mingle with the people.  After standing for quite some time, some people got off.  Staci and I were able to grab a seat.  Whew! Finally, we can sit and relax for a bit. Nope!  The seat we get is right over the back wheel, so there is this big hump at our feet. The two of us have to sit with our knees practically up into our chests.  At least it was some relief.  With every stop, more and more people would hop on the bus, while very few would get off.  Staci would always say, Come on now. Are y’all sure this isn’t your stop?”  LOL  Oh, and for some reason the Turkish people do not like having the windows open on the bus.  Paul would open them up and then would go and close them!  LOL  So you can imagine, as more and more people pile on this bus, the body heat and body odor intensifies. Phew!

Along the way, we were definitely Americans.  People gave strange glares and/or appearances.  They probably said a few things under their breath (or whispers) – they did not need to whisper we don’t know their language anyways. We can imagine what they are saying, probably something like…“Stupid americans”, “do they not know this is not a tourist spot”, “they probably don’t know where they are going”.  They were half right.  We were stupid enough to take the bus the wrong direction.  Little did they know that we are in the middle of no-where  to  do IVF at a hospital.  There were also some children on the bus who stared a lot and giggled at us.  They were cute.  We saw people of all different kinds, women who were in full muslim-gear (head and neck covered), and women who were just wearing normal clothes. 

The weather was wonderful.  The temperature was like 70 with a cool breeze, but unfortunately we didn’t feel it much since they kept closing the darn windows on us. Grrrr….  There was one window that did stay open, but only because this cute in love couple was standing in front of it.   They would put their faces out it and it would blow the woman’s hair horizontally backwards. Paul said there was a 2^nd window open at the front, but it wouldn’t stay open for long before someone would close it.  We still can’t decide whether they closed the windows because they thought it was cold, or they just didn’t like the blowing of the air. We would also get a breeze when the door behind us would open at stops. We have a picture of the dense population of people standing on the bus.  

These pictures were actually taken before everyone crammed onto the bus.  So imagine this with 3 times as many people on it, and you will get the picture.

before everyone crammed on the bus

before everyone crammed on the bus

There isn’t much personal space on the bus or anywhere in public. 

While on the journey home, we asked a couple of people on the bus if they knew where the stop for the hospital was.  We had no clue what our stop was called. The only way we were going to know when our stop was by looking at landmarks and street signs.  Most did not understand us.  Finally, one gentleman said he knew where it was and thought it was the last stop.  Another lady said she thought it was the last stop as well. She said she was going to be exiting where we were and then taking another bus and that we should do the same. Thank goodness this older man spoke up, and said, “No, it’s not the last stop. It’s the second to last stop, and you don’t need to take another bus.”  So with the help of the locals we finally arrived at our stop for the hospital.  We still don’t know the name of the stop!  LOL

We exited the bus, and then climbed up the stairs to cross the interstate.  We located our hospital Andolu Medical Center down the road in the distance.  From the bus stop, it was about a 20 minute walk.  As we walked that last jaunt we were laughing at ourselves about the whole days adventure. And for the first time, our bed actually felt good last night.