DAYS 44-57, Mon MARCH 15TH TO SAT MARCH 27TH 2021 – Maybe it was too sweet.. Corona is here

The Bosphorus seem to have lot of jellyfish, but we have witnessed dolphins also several times, sometimes even really close to the boats. It is weird for me to see them there. I would imagine they would stay away from the endless boats and ships.

 

I would not swim here

Pedro stays positive

We headed for another trip with Pedro, took the ferry to the Asian side and went looking for something extra sweet. After eating something real, Adana Kebab and other stuff we continued with bus and walking.

Kebab and stuff

Finally we made it to a strange place. Gamze had looked the place up. It was full of pink flowers and other “princess” stuff.

Looks like a place for a princess

Coffee with some colour

¨

"Ice cream"

More ice cream

Looks pretty fancy

First we got some drinks and interesting coloured coffee and then came the main stuff. Some quite cool stuff.. Chocolate and other stuff. Well maybe not my favourite place, but for sure something different to my normal life. Everything was really sweet and nice.

 

Levitation?

Relaxation...

So much enjoying this..

Few days later our roommate and his friends finally organized a rake night, even though we did not manage to really invite others there. The plan was to have the night way earlier, but it was postponed and postponed until when we had it, almost no one came... 

Really hand made stuff

Traditional snacks were hand made on the floor. I think I prefer the snacks in Finland and maybe rake is not my drink. Interesting night anyways with some local dancing and music.

"2 station Metro" up the hill 

We headed to Taksim, took a “metro”, I don’t know what to call it as it drove only from the bottom of the hill to the top. Again walking in the city we witnessed lot of national flags. Kinda reminds me of China and USA.. Flags everywhere like in US, but in addition you also see leader cult with pictures of the former boss of the country and also military & police like in China. There really are lot of military areas on the sides of the highways for example.

Some of the flags are really large. 

Just too much people everywhere

Walking in the main street of Taksim is something I don’t want to do. It is just too much people. Walking is super stressing and you have to move sideways all the time so you don’t bump to others.. not a place for a Northener.

Then it was time for another newyear. Our Iraqi friends invited us to them for their party. March 20^th at noon we were told to be there and on time for the special traditions and rituals. We took a bus and it took almost 2 hours to arrive near the airport

Some snacks while waiting

Filled bread was nice and tasty

There we first ate some snacks, then it was time for some ritual with list of special items of which each had some symbolic meaning. Sorry I don’t remember the meanings and forgot to take a photo. After this we had “huge” fireworks.

Ok, the fireworks were quite modest.. but fun

Some eating, singing and dancing and it was time to return home. The next day was for more our style partying and we headed to Taksin and a metal bar. Next day I relaxed with our house cat who has now started to like me. 

On Saturday 27^th we went to meet with the other Erasmus student from my University. The welcome party was nice, but turned out to be just drinking, not even a welcome speech was given. We were invited again to a incoming Cappadocia trip and decided to take part in it. As the party started to die and the place (Irish bar) was not to our taste we went to the Wall bar again.

 

Rare style in Istambul for a car

While waling the streets I saw the third oldtimer car in the city.. not too many here, even though the locals really seem to like them

And here I end this blog.. it was too sweet in the start.. If I calculate correctly this was the night I got Corona… more in the next blog.. don’t worry we are still alive.