Whereami

Not so strangeland

Arrived safely in İstanbul (where apparently they dot their capital i's...and the i key is after the l key...and don't ask about the question mark). Off to go find a place to stay.

Also, if anyone knows a good (and cheap) way to get to Athens could you drop me a line...İ was planning on taking the train, but not after reading these two links...

Train to Athens, part 1
Train to Athens, part 2

ps: note to self, check out the turkish rap group 'ceza' upon return.

Brrr!!!

After 3 years of lıvıng ın Texas and 4 months of travellıng ın tropıcal clımates, it's official...ı can no longer stand the cold. Walkıng around a sunny (and non-wındy) Istanbul today ı was freezıng my ass off.

Escapıng to a convıenent store ı started talkıng about the weather wıth the manager...very cold we both agreed...and then ı told hım ı was from chıcago and hıs eyebrows jumped...Çhıçago! There ıt's REALLY çöld!  (note turkısh characters to ımply spoken accent :)

Upon further ınspectıon...ı aın't seen nothıng yet...can't waıt to get back home :(

Just say no

For more (non-travel) related cartoons, check out the other blog.

And to continue with this draw instead of write post, I came across some Moleskine pictures on Flickr. What's a Moleskine? Answer here.

Leaving Istanbul tomorrow and for the first time I'll have to deal with the all time low value (as compared to the Pound and the Euro) of the dollar. Looks like even drug dealers are dropping the dollar as their currency of choice.

Why bother?

A strange thing happened the other day when I was sitting in the lobby of my hostel checking email. A woman (I'm pretty sure she was American) stopped in to chat with some of the workers and then as she was leaving said "alright, off for a run!" in a typical high-energy kind of way.

Almost immediately, I laughed out loud at her comment (and I don't laugh out loud that often). A run?? It seemed like such a ridiculous idea when she said it. So unnecessary or unimportant. It was the first time I had a "what's the point of doing that" reaction to exercise.

I have all intentions of getting back in shape (and doing plenty of running) when I get back home, but the thing is while travelling it just didn't seem like a priority at all...not only just a non-priority, but an incorrect one at that.

Not sure why, just mentioning the observation.