It was my first APV even though I have been a group leader before as well. Unfortunately things went bad with finding another participant to represent Estonians. It was a line of bad coincidents. At least I was presented there and I totally enjoyed the time. 22 of February I had a pleasant flight to Istanbul and after some time in subway and short walking I was in the hotel. I like that subway road is not going only underground but metro also drives like a train and you can see what surrounds you. On the way I saw an odd thing. People collect trash from the streets manually. No garbage truck, in Istanbul they have garbage carts. Probably this system works because of lack of space. 🤔 To a contrast, I was surprised how nice everything it is in our hotel. I guess it is the most luxurious accommodation place I have ever been even though I have been in 5-stars hotel as well. I had some relax time before we went outside. Because after Hungarians had arrived we went out to eat. They brought to tables a lot of appetizers: breads, salads and some spicy stuff. And then we had to choose what we want to eat for a main dish. Everything was in Turkish, so actually we based on locals recommendations in our choice. In the restaurant we had a first familiarization round. We have experienced group leaders, so participants shouldn't worry about at all. Because we were in Turkey we needed to get the real cultural experience by visiting a shisha bar. By the way, the taste of apple is so different from our ones. Turkish taste is way more better than in Estonia. When we went back to the hotel I wanted to see the terrace because participants from last years told me about that. It was lovely to see city lights and mosque lighted up. 23 of February Breakfast was in our hotel. Variety of food was good and tasty. In the morning I also met missing participants from Lithuania. They arrived really late at night and we didn't have a change to meet before. After a breakfast we had a tour in the hotel. We saw our activity room and other nice places that we are going to use during our project. Then we started to work hard and discussed through the timetable. There will be many interesting activities and I got so many ideas what I would like to do with my group as well. I believe it is going to be a really educating and interesting project for youth. After morning meeting we had some free time once again. I went to walk around the district. I wanted to enter the mosque as well but I was kind of afraid. It is really hard to adapt a new culture when you have no idea how it works. So, I'll leave this visit to April. In the evening we went by taxi to taksim square. Huuh, this taxi ride was insane. Overall, the traffic in Istanbul is grazy and tight conditions inside a car didn't make it more pleasant ride. In pedestrian point of view it is very difficult to cross the road. I just follow locals on their way crossing the street. It had been worked so far. And fortunately I have a really good Balkan school how to cross the road in difficult conditions. But back to the taxi ride, there was lack of space and too curvy roads. Somehow we managed, hopefully Jørgen enjoyed the ride as well 😄 The main street next to taksim was crowded. Locals said that it is always like that. We went to a shisha bar, it was pretty hidden but popular place. My restorer eye saw that the building has nice historical value as well. Because taksim is close to Suvi's place I invited her as well. It was a great reunion, usually we have met after the "Back to Our Roots" project in Tallinn with Birgitta and Javier for several times. I was used to talk in English all those days and that's why I started to talk with her in English at first. My brain just couldn't switch the language so quickly. Suvi fit into our group easily and we had so many Estonian moments during so short time. She gave me more energy and made me happy. It is always nice to meet with your friends, moreover somewhere far away from your motherland 😊 After plentiful dinner we went to a bar. The location of the place was kind of secret. As an average tourist I would have never found that place. It is weird that clubs/bars are located upstairs of the building. On the first floor there just might be a cafe or whatever but upstairs a real life reveals. If you want to enjoy nightlife of the city it is essential to take a contact with locals. The view to the night Istanbul was amazing. Live music made the place even better. Estonian independence day arrived for me in an international group. Suddenly Croatians, Austrian, Russian and Mexican joined with us. They met in hostel but Croatians knew our Turkish friends and thats why they joined us. I talked with many people but sometimes it is better to be quiet. Somehow a fake uncle story got viral and I bet that they will make even more jokes about that on April as well 😅 Because there was a band we went to the dancefloor as well. It was hard to dance while having your coat and bag with you but for safety it was the best option. It was great night and good start for an Estonian independence day. 24 of February I spent the morning in the hotel. But after the breakfast I said goodbye to guys and left the place. I reached the right metro station independently and met Anıl there. He is living in a new flat close to our project hotel. After I had put my things away we made a plan where to go and what to do. Firstly, we went to a Grand Bazaar. I have to mention that those paintings there need to be restored 😁 Then I saw Hagia Sophia and Sultan Ahmed mosque. On our way we saw many more mosques but they were just "small" ones. Actually I was a bit disappointed in Hagia Sophia. On the photos and videos it has been more glorious. Maybe it was because of the cloudy weather. Then we went to the riverside. There were many fishers and they are not just standing there, they are really catching fishes from Bosphorus. We walked over the bridge and visited one hipster district. It was a good place to eat and drink something. From there it was easy to go to Galata tower. We went to a cafe and enjoyed the view. Weather was cold but luckily it wasn't raining. Because I had seen kind of everything in the city centre we drove to one neighbourhood which is not so touristic. It was really quiet there and I had a possibility to see real locals life. Houses were classical style and many of them were in a bad conditions. I loved tradidional wooden houses and of course restored colourful houses. In the evening we had a pretty odd taxi ride to taksim square again. It was a bigger taxi and I still really didn't get how the system works there but at least we reached our destination. We had a pleasant dinner following people on the street and then once again we went to a secret bar on the rooftop. Again, amazing night view to the city. There were only locals around me. Afterwards we went to a bar/club. It was a weird place. People were dancing around their own table and there wasn't a classic dancefloor. At first music was Turkish one, but when time passed they played more and more international songs as well. I can say that I even recognized 3 Turkish songs 😆 Ölürüm Sana was our farewell song with that place. I know exactly the meaning of the song! No need to read some hidden messages out of that. It is just a song I like. Unfortunately on my last evening in Istanbul it was raining. Then I felt fucking cold but I knew that in Estonia it is even colder. Also Anıl apartment's view was amazing. I love to watch Istanbul panorama. 25 of February
I totally needed those few hours of sleep before going to airport. The way there wasn't hard again. Even though Istanbul is a huge city its public transport works perfectly and logically. Everything is understandable for me. Plane to Tallinn departed from the farthest corner as usual 😒 I was kind of melanholic on my flight back to Estonia. It was super hard for me to leave the place behind. I am in love with Istanbul and my only relief is that I can come back on April. At least I had a nice flight while listening to Turkish music and watching Kardeşim Benim. Btw, it is a really entertaining movie. I have never seen so empty Tallinn city centre at noon than on that Sunday. People went too far with their indipendence day celebrations and wanted to recover at home I guess. PS! Important information that I received during my stay in Turkey. Tarkan becomes a father 😚
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