Reunions

Trip Start Dec 01, 2008
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10
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Trip End Dec 31, 2008


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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

final full day in istanbul, but stories-a-plenty. found some new canadian friends 2 nights ago and enjoyed some nargilah and raki, curtosy of the hostel. was encouraged to put on my leafs jersey, which doesn't take much convincing for me to do, and lo and behold, one of the hostel guys had a leafs jersey too, which he put on as well. random.
yesterday i did a 14 km walk to ortökoy and checked out the port of entry for the sephards upon their arrival to turkey over 500 years ago from spain. and last night my new aussie friend (now a brisbaner to add to the list) and i ventured out and tried some turkish coffee. i can't believe i'm saying this, but it was actually good! the baklava wasn't bad either.
now today. oh today. so last night my cousin in toronto came through in her mission to get the phone number of my grandpapa's sister, who, rumour was, still lived in istanbul. i called this morning and success! i hopped on a dolmus (taxi/bus) and weaved recklessly through the traffic to the suburb of bostanci, the istanbul equivalent of forest hill. the mini family reunion was pretty cool. we chatted about this and that, i got to learn more about the family's roots in turkey and more about my grandpapa from his sister's point of view.
tonight myself and the adelaidians from selçuk attempt to meet up and have a bender to leave istanbul in style. tel aviv tomorrow.
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