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Middle East - part I

Istanbul, Selcuk, Fethiye, Cappadocia

Hector Yague
2005-10-07 16:37:32

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Istanbul

I arrived at Istanbul International Airport the 12th of March 2004 in the afternoon. After a 20 minutes bus ride I finally got to the Sultanahmet district, which is the 'old town', where most of the touristic sites take place. Just as I got off the bus, with my 25 kg. backpack on my ribs, I realized that I had no idea where I was. I pulled out my Lonely Planet guide and tried to read the map, searching for the Yucelt Interyouth Hostel (I read some nice feedbacks on the net about it and it was conveniently located). Well, after walking for an hour without any sense of direction, one local guy called Engin politely walked me towards the right direction. Turned out that Engin was coursing the same uni studies as I had myself, business management, so we spoke about it for a while. Thanks Engin!

Anyway, so I booked a shared dorm room at the Yucelt Hostel (which was clean enough) and dropped my backpack on the ground with relief. I was totally exhausted and sort of wondering why the hell did this crazy idea of traveling cross my mind. They were the first few hours of my one-year-long journey and I was already growing doubts and fears, missing home, my girlfriend and whatnot. Rough landing indeed, which is why the call it culture entry shock.

Barely few minutes later, one of my room mates walked in and we introduced ourselves. His name was John, from Colorado -USA-, and he was spending a short holidays around Turkey. John was a cool fellow and during the following days we had some nice chats about politics, USA vs. Europe, etc. Surprisingly, the company of being with someone together in this foreign environment chilled out my mood a big deal. Hooking up with John for the next few days in Istanbul surely had a blessing, soothing effect on my fearsome doubts. I immediately realized that one major factor in this trip was bound to be the travelers I'll befriend along the ...