A stranger in strange land. I unpack my stuff and jump into bed even though it was 11:00 am there. I was awake the whole night and I needed some sort of sleep. I am lying in my bed, taking a nap a and this guy walks into the room...WTF? I look at him and he too seems a bit surprised actually panicked. He says sorry and goes out. By this I had realized that he was some kind of service person because he was wearing this apron like thing. So...the story continues and the first day begins (for me of course). I get up and decide to "set-up" my room. I take out the laptop, turn it on and setup net access. Hang my clothes, put my mobile and camera on charge. Take out the cash, passport and "other" valuables to put them someplace safe. What? there is no power in the room? Or may be they have a different power systems here like 110 volts or something. I decide to ask the staff a few question and make a list ( :) thats me).
I am at the reception and these two lovely ladies are present to help me in anyway. So, the list starts:
- This guy walked into my room, who else access to the room beside me? :). "No one sir, only the housekeeping people. Did you turn on the DND light?"
- Are my valuables safe in the room given they have access? "They are safe and you don't have to worry. You can also put your stuff in the safebox" :$
- What's the power system here? Nothing is working in my room? "Sir, did you put card in the slot beside the door?" :)
- Which is the nearest place I can go on foot?
I go back to my room take care of a few things and I am off for a tour of the neighborhood. Turns out this place has quite a view.
Since my hotel was right beside the river, very near to it there was a nice place to sit and relax with a good view of the Bosphorous bridge and lots of small restaurants with exorbitant prices of things I couldn't understand.
Well, I wasn't eating there anyway. You know, I don't eat things I don't understand :).
The place was a popular hang out place for college students and kind of a small marketplace as well with these stalls where petty items were being sold. Like cards, cheap ornaments, showpieces, wall items and wigs?
Due to the cold weather and romantic riverside view you could see a lot of love birds, beside other birds, holding tightly to each other. Probably just to keep warm.
The weather was too cold for comfort, not to mention the wind. It was passing through me as if I was a flimsy "banyan" (undershirt for the English speaking lot) hanging on a clothes line on a windy day.
Just there, was this beautiful mosque, what to say, let me show it to you.
It was built in this typical Turkish architecture and from inside and outside both it is similar to many of the famous mosques of Istanbul. They have a mixed kind of architecture which is Muslim considering the minars, arcs and domes but has a roman and Byzantine look as well. Look at this mosque and tell me if it does give an impression of a church? The plate at the top of the right stairs says this mosque was built in 1855.
I did mention the Bosphorous river and its bridge, but what does it look like? Here you go.
So I roamed around for a while, never going too far from the place since I did not have bread crumbs to leave a trail behind and was afraid to get lost in this strange land. It was lunch time already and I decided to get something to eat. It was so difficult to decide. First, I didn't understand the names of the food as everything was in Turkish. No one bothered to write it in English despite the fact that it was a common tourist location. I saw this guy making something that looked like our "paratha", so I stopped there to ask. It was very difficult as they don't speak English and I don't speak Turkish. Anyway, I went for the one with cheese in it. I had become pretty good at sign language though.
Returning back to my room, I decided to take some rest and meet up with the other delegates. But I didn't know who they were or where they were staying, except one. When I received the email confirming my hotel and flight reservations, there was one other name mentioned there: Ashraf Abbas. This guy was supposed to come from Jordan. But the name said to me: this guy is a Pakistani.
I rang up the operator and asked her to connect me to Mr Ashraf Abbas. Ringing.....
"Hello"
"Ashraf Abbas sahab, As Salaam-O-Alaikum. Kaise hain aap?"
"Sorry"
"Aap Microsoft ki training main participate kar rahe hain na?"
"What?"
"Ji mera naam Raza hai....Do you understand Urdu?"
"No"
"Sorry, I thought you were a Pakistani."
"No, I am from Jordan."
"OK....So I suppose you were sleeping..How about we meet up later?"
"OK"
"What time?"
"Lets meet at 7 in the lobby."
My impression of this guy was that, he must be thirty five something, married with a kid or two. At seven I came down at the lobby and stood in the center and looked left, then right and then left again. The guy looking at me must be him. "Ashraf?", "Yes! How are you Raza?". He wasn?t what I expected him to be. He was my age, married (as it turned out later) with no kids and he had been to Istanbul earlier.
So after a boring afternoon, I spent a good evening with this guy and got to know him. Since he had been here already I asked him to show me around, but as it turned out all visitor places were closed by that time. Only the Dolmabache palace was near, but that too was closed. So, we decided to get some dinner. Whereto? Let's go to McDonalds and eat something familiar, at least on the first day.
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