On the road again

I'm into my second day in Istanbul, and I'm listening to this douchewad American make a scene in the lobby of my hostel complaining about the service. "I've stayed in hostels all over the world, and I know..." blah blah. Put your travel dick away, buddy. We all have one.

Anyway...

It's nice to be back on the road, doing the backpacker thing. I'll admit that something feels the tiniest bit off so far on this trip, but I haven't quite put my finger on what it is. Maybe I am, as my dad so diplomatically suggested, getting too old for the hostel scene. Maybe it's that I'm traveling in a place that I feel like I should know, having lived in Turkey for three years, and that feels just familiar enough to be disconcerting yet not familiar enough to be comfortable. Maybe it's because I know that this is a fake vacation, that I'm just killing time before my 'real' trip begins in Kyrgyzstan. Maybe it's just some weird jetlag. I don't quite know. I do know that it's not going to stop me. I've certainly hit bouts of malaise on trips before, and I've always found it best to just power through. There's always something worthwhile waiting once you break through it.

The last time I was in Turkey was 1997, when I was graduating from high school. And I don't know exactly when I was in Istanbul last. But it's nothing like I remember it. I think part of it is that I always came to Istanbul on either school or family trips. As I remember, we'd bus from site to site, fairly insulated from the real Istanbul -- not that there's anything terribly nefarious that requires insulation. But I don't remember Istanbul being this big or cosmopolitan or Western. I'm sure once I rip myself out of Sultanahmet and away from the tourist ghetto, I'll get a whiff of the more authentic Istanbul. But the sites must be seen, right?

And so I've seen them. Blue Mosque? Check. Hagia Sophia? Check. Grand Bazar? Check. Yerebatan Cistern? Check. Bosphorus Cruise? Check. I'm giving Topkapi Palace a miss, as that's one of the attractions that I remember clearly from visiting Istanbul in high school. I've got two more nights in Istanbul and haven't quite figure out what I'm going to do with the rest of my time here. I'm sure something will come to me. Something always does.

One thing that hasn't changed is the persistent misconceptions about Turkey -- and Islam -- by Westerners. I've already had a number of conversations about culture, politics and religion -- compounded by the fact that it's the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month in which most practicing Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. (The major benefit of traveling during Ramadan is that you can buy Ramadan bread, the traditional unleavened bread that Turks eat to break their fast. It's seriously the best bread on the face of earth.)

The comment that sticks out the most came from a guy that I met on my Bosphorus cruise. He remarked offhandedly that Turkey would never get into the European Union. I asked him why, and he said that it was just too different. Statements like that really irk me for a variety of reasons. While I know that there are political hurdles that still need to be jumped for the full accession of Turkey into the EU to occur, stating that Turkey's just too "different" is, frankly, ignorant. I would argue that Turkey and Bulgaria have more in common than Bulgaria and, say, Sweden. Yet Bulgaria is a full EU member, while Turkey has waited on the sidelines for 40 years. I don't purport to be an expert in European affairs, but I think simplifying it to "difference" between Turkey and the rest of the EU smacks of racism and Islamophobia.

Anyway...I didn't quite intend for this to become any type of diatribe, so I'm going to cut it short. I think tonight I'm going to venture out into Taksim to sample the Turkish nightlife. Should be fun...see you later.