Friday, October 1, 2010

Day 28 & 29: Last Day in Istanbul and Return to Germany

Have just gotten into Frankfurt and now on my way to Bamberg to start the end of this trip. Seeing I didn’t try a Tuborg while in Istanbul I had one on the flight back, and it wasn’t good. Worst beer I didn’t have in Istanbul. Couldn’t even tell if it was the yeast, hops or carbonation that made it difficult like a VB to drink.

Just found out before boarding this train that Stew has made it to Germany and had time to meet up with me over the next week. If he had let me know an hour earlier than he did, I may not have booked Bamberg from Turkey this morning and could be on my way there now. A disappointment for this trip. Still, that is travel, and already met, and reacquainted myself with many good people. Even on the way to the airport on the tram, I had a 20 minute conversation with an Istanbul local who shook my hand as we parted ways and said ‘God be with you’. Was a nice touch to the trip.

Ok, as for yesterday, I went and saw Hagia Sofia by myself in the morning (one word, immense. Made me think that in such a crowded city, this was where they came for space to contemplate). Then caught up with Brad, had a fish sandwich (too much onion) and meet up with Seda before heading out on the ferry then cable car to a café with a great view of the city. Made it back down to get a vending machine ice cream (with vacuum), past the iron church (and collected walnuts from a tree there) and made our way to an old, run down suburb in good location to meet up with a friend of theirs for beer. His place had great views as well, and so we sat and relaxed with him on the balcony and watched to sun go down from there. I started with a Efes Extra (out of a can), and even with 7.5% there was enough flavour overall to keep the taste relatively even. Slightly darker with malt, and more hops allowed me not to be offended by it as I thought I would. Then had a Efes dark to give me a bit of flavour to enjoy before getting with the other boys and drinking Efes Pils as we made our way to the design festival party (but with bad weather approaching they didn’t let us in at 8pm), so ended up back at his place for pita, more Efes Pils and the turkish spirit raki, which had a pretty distinct licorice taste to it, but still went down alright. We ended up staying the night there, having to get up early so I could get back to my hotel, have a shower, brekkie and then get to the airport.

Much love to Brad and Seda for being amazing to me to show me so much of the city and for being available just to hang out as much as they did. Luckily I have been writing down all that I saw as well as all I drank or it would be a massive blur right now.

So from sunny Turkey now back to overcast Germany but the beer journey continues with Bamberg and Prague. Sorry Stew, would have been great to catch up but looks like this is one piece of bad luck from the trip. Enjoy this country mate, and see you in January when you get back to OZ. Also, see you Brad and Seda in a couple of months, when you make it back to OZ.

Cheers,

Beefy

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