#142 First Port ... Settling In
Well, I’ve been in Istanbul now for 14 days. My jet lag, believe it or not, is still hanging on. I would say that I am about 90% through it, but a 38-hour trip going through 10 time zones certainly took its toll. On top of the jetlag, many things are bittersweet. I can’t tell you how many times I wished that I could send a picture or say something to Mark about what I’m experiencing. But I assume, that this too shall pass. But I never forget, that he was instrumental in me being here at all.
300 meters from my apartment - Ortaköy Ferry Station
I am really enjoying being in Istanbul. What I had remembered and looked forward to about living in a cozy neighborhood where everything was in walking distance, turned out to be exactly as I had imagined. I am living in a district called Ortaköy, only about two or three hundred meters from the Bosphorus itself, and almost everything one could want, groceries, salons, hardware, pharmacies, numerous bakeries, delicatessens, restaurants, are all within a 200 meter radius of my apartment door. I do occasionally get a taxi up to a larger shopping center (AkMerkez). This both a way to get out of the house and a way to have access to a slightly wider array of more luxury goods in the grocery stores. I was able to find OAT milk, which really pleased me, I discovered it just before I left the United States and I really like it.
The bakery and fruit stand from my apartment window - 0545AM
I have spent the last 10 days pigging out on fresh bakery products every day, and perhaps more chocolate than I should have. The local restaurants serve a lot of meat with a lot of bread. However, there is something that compensates for this. In Las Vegas my average steps per day used to be around 4000 when I was living in Las Vegas. Now? Closer to between 8,000 to 10,000 steps.
And Wow! A lot of those steps are hills. Really steep ones. Walking from my apartment, which is in, topographically, the bottom of a small valley, to Yildiz Park, is almost 100 m (300 foot) elevation change. Over 650 meters. This week, for the first time, I will try doing it with a 15kg ruck on.
I did have to go out and shop for some household items for the Air B&B. I had to buy a comfortable office stool to sit on, and some nice towels and floor mats, but other than that it was quite nice. The air B&B host bought a water boiler, and replaced the air conditioning unit. And I bought a small microwave, because I use microwaves a lot.
I have to say that one thing that really blows me away about this city, is the cost of living. Mark had researched this. And I knew there was going to be low. But I truly did not realize just how low. A huge meal and a local restaurant that could really easily feed two people, maybe three if they were like me, 6 to 8 dollars. Average taxi ride for me is probably 2 to 4 dollars. The microwave I bought, $80. The very nice quality towels and formats I bought, $12 for two towels and two floor mats. The office stool, quite nice from IKEA hundred and $120. If I buy two chocolate croissants and a cheese roll at the bakery across the street in the morning, freshly made, $1. Seriously. Compare that to prices in the United States or even Western Europe. I really continue to be surprised about this.
On the other hand … a haircut, manicure, and pedicure … $50 … But a very nice one in an upscale part of town. About 50% what it is in the U.S. for sure.
I attempted to acquire a Danish domain name that would be shared with my close personal friends for purposes of letting them know exactly where I am. Real addresses, actual phone numbers. I realized through the fog of my jetlag a few days after I got here that nobody actually knew where I was. The reason I bring this up is because having applied to purchase a Danish domain name, which ends with the identifier ’.DK’. I was rudely disabused of my ability to do that by an organization called DK Hostmaster in Denmark who basically said ‘We think you’re fraudulent and are planning to use a Danish domain name for illegitimate purposes so were refusing to let you have it.’ What a bunch of arrogant sons-of-bitches. Their claim, under the guise of security, is that they thought the documentation that I submitted was not okay. I thought their documentation requirements were quite invasive, but I did supply them. A copy of my bank statement, a copy of my driver’s license, a recent picture, all that they had, in fact, asked for.
Because I don’t really have that much to do right now, I paid $20, and I have lodged an official complaint with the government agency in Denmark which oversees the actions of this bunch of yahoos. Will anything come of it? I don’t know. And honestly, I don’t really care. They are a bunch of idiots that I refuse to allow to ruin my otherwise perfectly fine days, but I thought I would give it a shot and see if I can get the domain name that I asked for. What a bunch of morons.
The new stool - padded and on a hydraulic support :-)
I did make one foray from where I lived to a place called Bayrampaşa, in order to visit an IKEA. If I had forgotten what Istanbul traffic was like, this swiftly reminded me. And, at that, it wasn’t actually that bad. But it took 40 minutes to get there, a lot of it through stop and go traffic and down winding little roads. The IKEA, when I arrived, was absolutely huge. I should’ve carried my manual compass with me to prevent me from getting lost. However, I was able to find a nice office stool that there was certainly more comfortable than the torture instruments that were already in place in the apartment. However, it certainly disabused me of wishing to travel any great distances outside a relatively small area in Istanbul. Which is why I stayed where I am staying. Most of the places that I used to like and enjoy are within a 15 to 20 minute taxi ride at the most. Or an hour and ½ walk.
Starting today, my ambition is to get back to my more austere eating habits, do more exercise every day in the house, spend more time on my languages every day, and try to spend at least 30 minutes a day getting back to pencil sketching.
We will see how that all goes.
A brief update to this article
· The ruck went well. The hills really push you.
· It turns out I do need another root canal, as the quite attractive lady dentist explained to me today. And the reason for the infection? Pressure changes during the long flight. So next week going in on Wednesday to get it done.