Istanbul, Turkey 06/24/06

Finally the weekend! Saturday was a great day away from the office. I actually moved out of the hotel and went to stay with Yani. Yani has an extra room in his apartment and it would make things easier for everybody if I'm there instead of the hotel. Kari picked me up from the hotel and then we went to a French "Walmart" called Carrefour. He was having a birthday party for his son Onee, so he needed to pick up some things from there. By the way, today I learned all the names of his family. Kari, Anee (his wife), Aino (his oldest = daughter), Onee (his second = son), Ati (his third = son) and Eni (his fourth = daughter). I had a hard time with the names as you can imagine. Ati came along with Kari when he picked me up from the hotel, so we quickly became good friends. He's 3 years old. For lunch, his son wanted McDonald's and I had some Turkish food = Lamb! Kari had his son's left overs.

After Carrefour, Kari dropped me off at Yani's house. It's a beautiful area of Istanbul. So we started walking up the stairs to Yani's apartment with my suitcases and my carry on. After getting to the second floor, I asked Yani how far we were going up. He surprised me when he said, "Oh, just to the fourth floor!" Apartment buildings in Istanbul usually don't have elevators. At least that's what he told me and I believed him. I had to take a break on the third floor. When I was in my last breath, we finally reached the fourth floor. He's got the penthouse. There's a terrific view of the city and you can see one of Istanbul's bridges that crosses the water from one continent to the other.

Yani told me about this Christian concert that was being held at a restaurant owned by some Koreans in Istiklal on the European side of Istanbul. So it was decided that we would watch the football (soccer) game on that side as well. After taking a much needed siesta, that's where we headed. This time, we took a different Ferry to cross the water. It is closer to the bridge and the Ferry pulls up to a different station. It was quite an enjoyable ride with such a beautiful view.

We ended up watching the game at a cafe called "Cico" in Istiklal in the last floor of a building where they were showing all the games. We didn't have to take the stairs. Wait a minute! wasn't I told that there are usually no elevators in buildings in Istanbul? He must have meant residential buildings, I think. Germany beat Sweden 2-0. Sweden had no chance. Towards the end, the game got a little boring and so I ended up taking pictures from up there.

Around 8pm, we headed to the "Korean" restaurant for the concert. A new group called Storybox played in Turkish and English. Well, mostly in English because the lead singer is Australian, the girl is Canadian and the guy I think is from USA. They had a nice acoustic sound. We were joined by some people from Turk 7, that are taking the training classes. The cafe had a fantastic view towards Hagia Sofia, the New Mosque and of course the water.

Around 10pm, we headed to Rio Bravo restaurant, in Istiklal as well, to watch Argentina vs Mexico. We had a great time there just chatting, listening to the band that was playing and watching the game, which went into over time. Argentina won by 1. The game was too long. We had a wonderful midnight ride across the water back to Asia. G-d is awesome!