To Istanbul

May 4:

I was awoken at 6am by an alarm and a moral choice. J-Dawg had left her alarm on and locker unlocked and it had started going off. Ursula and I were sleeping in the bunk bed adjacent it and were immediately awakened. After a few awkward, sleep blurred minutes we decided that since neither J-Dawg or Emily were home yet we would have to go into her stuff and turn it off.

A couple minutes later Emily gets back saying that she somehow managed to get separated from J-Dawg. We talked about it for a bit but there wasn’t anything to do at that hour so we went back to bed. I couldn’t get back to sleep but enjoyed my newly powered laptop.

People started getting up again around 10. Emily and I went down for breakfast and inquired about what to do about a lost friend. J-Dawg did eventually show up around noon saying she had woken up in a stairwell but was otherwise unharmed. Soon Pat and I had to head out so we finished our packing and headed to the airport. We got there with plenty of time to spare and once we checked our bags we had to go through some passport controls for leaving Europe. We each got pulled aside because apparently we could only be in Europe for 90. I was four or five days over this limit, making Pat a fair bit more over this limit. I was told I would have to pay a 600 Euro fine but that the guy would wave it for me. Upon leaving the small room they had brought me into to talk to me I saw Pat getting the same treatment just outside so I was sure to have my guy talk to his so we could each get the same deal. Soon we were off to Istanbul.

Once in Istanbul there was a bunch of stuff to do before we could get in. First we had to line up to buy visas so we could enter the country. I went to a bank machine to get a small amount of Turkish Lira incase they didn’t take any of the Euros we had on us. Pat was already in line and once I got the money I hurried to meet him. Visas bought we cleared customs and got our bags. We got to Harmony Hostel, our residence for the next five nights, with ease. Once we checked in we went to a bank machine to get cash for the hostel. It was at this point where I realized my debit card was no longer in my wallet, something must have happened when I got money out at the airport. When we got back to the hostel We rested until it was time for the grilled fish dinner we had signed up for earlier. After dinner we walked around the neighborhood for a little while before calling it an early night. During this walk we wandered into a shop that was selling turkish delight. I was offered a sample and it was delicious.