And We Are Right Back Into It!

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  Istanbul, Turkey
Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Hello all!

Well, as you may have read in the previous entry, we had quite the time arriving in Turkey due to the whole airport lockdown and crazed woman with a sword scare.  Once we did clamber into arrivals with our packs and our Lonely Planet book about Turkey, we were not even twenty steps into the arrivals area when we were approached by a 'tourist information' worker. Great smile, nice suit - you know the type.  He asked us if we had a hotel booked (we did), he asked us where we were staying and upon hearing 'Sydney Hostel' he saŭd he would arrange transport for us to get there since he knows the owner.  (Of course he knows the owner!). We thanked him and told him we would wait for the train to open.  Immediately, he explined that the train wouldn't open until 9:00am, and since it was only 5:00am now, that it would much better if we took the shuttle he could arrange.  Strange, but we thought that the train opened at 6:00am.   Hmmmmm. 

9:00am would be another long wait. 

You know that slight moment of exasperation you can develop when you are exhausted and think you know what your next steps are going to be, but you are thrown into that miniature panic when you are told something that fuddles your thoughts up.  Population - 2, Trevor and Dana.

So don't think of us as totally gullible here - we did have some little red flags going off in our heads - we did...but remember the whole smile and suit thing he had going on.  He was very convincing!  We wandered over to a booth that he led us to to see what the price of this shuttle would be.  For the both of us it was going to cost 70 Lira.  We were now confused about the money exchange as we had originally thought that the exchange rate was like a million Lira to a Candian dollar.  Something was not right.  We said we would think about it and wandered off to find out for sure what was what.  (ha - see, we're not total rookies here!)

When figuring out the exchange rate properly, we come to the realiation that one Lira is nearly the same amount as one dollar.  This meant that taking the nice 'tourist information' guy's shuttle would mean that we would be paying almost $70 Canadian dollars. The train that opens at '9:00' would cost us less than $2.00.  Hooray for not being total newbies to travels.  So before we even stepped foot onto new soil, we were right back into the game of travelling - ready for the scams once again.  It is funny how quickly it comes back to you - but also funny how quickly we seemed to have almost forgotten what it was like to get scammed.

Two more guys (in nice suits - and smiling) approached us within 10 minutes of each other asking the same questions as the first.  When we mentioned the train, the one guy just nodded kindly, and said, 'Yes that is good.  It opens at 6:00am.'  Ha!  So we do kinda still, sorta a bit, know what we are doing. 

So we remain seated and plan to wait out the 45min. left until six. 

Smiling once again, our first friend is back and sitting with us.  He is different than other people we have met in other countries trying to scam us, in that we still liked him well enough.  He was still kind and not overly pushy at all.  He let us know he could get us that shuttle for a little less if we would like...when we said no again and told him we'd wait for the train, he smiled and said, 'OK'.  Then he almost laughed sheepishly and said, 'Train opens at 6:00am' not 9:00am'.  Victory for Trevor and Dana!  We all laughed as this guy surrendered, realizing that we had figured stuff out properly.  He sat with us for nearly 40 minutes and chatted away.  He asked if we were married or just girlfriend and boyfriend.  When we said married, he said that was 'good', but he wasn't very convincing.  He looked at Trevor and asked,

'Do you like being married?'
Trevor answered 'Yeah' (a little slower than I'd have liked, by the way...)

The man said that was good and then said, 'I do not like being married.  It is better to be girlfriend and boyfriend.  My wife is crazy.  Crazy woman like her mother.'  We were laughing so hard with this guy that we were nearly making a scene.  He went on and on about his crazy wife asking us how old we thought he was.  In our heads, we were thinking close to 40, but we guessed about 32 just to be nice.  He shook his head and said he was only 24, but he had been married 5 years and it aged him and now he looks like this.  More laughing.  He explained that his wife was his cousin - his uncle's daughter, and he mentioned again that she was crazy - we don't think that he meant crazy like the looney bin, but it was more evident from his tone that she simply drove him crazy.  They have arranged marriages here, so he had no choice in the matter.  It was like he was talking about an annoying co-worker rather than his wife - it was becoming more clear as to why he seemed confused that anyone would CHOOSE to get married as we had chosen. 

'It is much more comfortable here at work than at home.  Much more comfortable'.  He told us.  He said that they had almost 20 family members living with them and of course his wife and her crazy mother were there too. 

We had more laughs with him as he talked about not getting along with taxi drivers and also mentioned that the next flight coming in will be from Japan and Singapore.  I looked at him and said, will THOSE passengers take your shuttle?  A quick grin crossed his face before he could stop it and he nodded.  Funny! 

Eventually, he shook our hands and went on his way.  We had a great chat with him and were ready for the train as it was almost 6:00am now. 

The train system was quite easy to use and very similar to ones we've been on before.  We made our way to Sultanahmet, the location in Instanbul that we were staying.  We wondered the street only 5 minutes and an older gentleman asked us where we were headed.  (Little Red Flag).  When he heard the name of our hostel, he said he knew the owner and would show us where to go.  (Medium red flag).  He was very kind (yes good smile again), and he led us most of the way and then gave us some directions from where he left us telling us to have a good journey.  We are liking Turkey. 

We made it to our hostel, following the exact directions he gave us and checked in without a problem.  Now.   It is 7:00am Turkey time, but it was 10:00pm at home, and we had travelled for 30 hours.  Can we stay awake? 

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