My girlfriend Tsvety and I proudly present the launch of our new blog Who Gives A Duck? with this rubber duckie video!
Who Gives A Duck? We give a duck!
First person to guess which city this video was shot in gets 200 Entrecard credits! (regular readers should have no problem with this)
Looks like one of my articles was picked up by the Europe Travel Blog Carnival! Click the article picture to go check out the carnival.
This is the apartment I’ve rented for a few days here in Sofia, Bulgaria for just 35 euros per night. It’s a normal price for a double room in some shabby hotel in the outskirts of most European capitals. Even in Sofia, most of the double rooms in hotels are around 20 euros per person. However, do a little searching and you’ll find yourself something way more awesome for a lot less money! 🙂
Oh and it’s not in the outskirts, it’s right in the center, just between Popa and NDK for those of you who are familiar. 😉
If you’re ever planning a trip to Sofia, I strongly advise you to find an apartment, as hotels are mostly overpriced. If you’re interested in the apartment in this video, you can call Ms. Georgieva on +359 888 502 981 (mobile number).
Tonight I’m hopping in the bus back to Istanbul, so new Istanbul updates very soon!
Just uploaded another album to my Picasa with pictures of my stay in Sofia, Bulgaria this week. Click on a pic below to go check out the album!
Or click here to see all of my albums, including older albums of Sofia, Istanbul, Brussels, Holland, Macedonia, and Bulgaria.
Last night I was relaxing a bit, since that’s the main reason why I came to Sofia, and I was looking for some documentaries on Istanbul. Hoping to learn about some interesting things I didn’t know yet in my current hometown, I came across a famous 2005 documentary called Crossing The Bridge – The Sound of Istanbul. It shows a lot of the music and culture that Istanbul has to offer, but also captures the daily life quite well. From rock to gypsie to Turkish traditional to rap to the whirling dervishes… It’s all in there! Without further ado… the documentary. (some commentary below)
Press CC to turn subtitles on. The subtitling is decent and sometimes inaccurate (both for the German as well as the Turkish parts). However it doesn’t prevent one from enjoying and understanding the documentary. So don’t let it hold you back. If you prefer to watch the video on Google Video’s site, click here.
My commentary
Ok, so most of the sights seem really special, right? That’s what I see every day. The sunsets, the Bosphorus… If I want to go to the European side, I go on one of the ferries displayed in the documentary.
At some point the video shows a group of rappers walking the street (one of them stops to say hi to a girl that’s on the phone)… I walk that street every day. It’s the street that goes from the main Kadıköy busstation to my neighbourhood, Moda. The next shot shows them walking down a street and it has the Bosphorus in the background… I walk down that street every day too. 🙂
I thought this documentary shows the daily life and the cultural life in Istanbul quite well. Some I have experienced, some I will experience, and some I will probably not experience. Having seen this documentary, I’m more inspired than ever to make the best out of my time… living in Istanbul!
Bring on the central hitting! 😉
As I wrote before, it’s really hard to get your residence permit in Turkey. The bureaucracy is crazy and apparently nobody really knows what exact documents you need to show them for them to issue you a residence permit. I received an email from one of my university’s international office employees that shows the Turkish bureaucratic chaos quite well.
I’ve bolded the parts of the email that really display the chaoticness very well, for quick reading. 😉
Date: Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 9:24 PM
Subject: Residence PermitFor those who are through – bravo .. geçmiş olsun too ..For those who are still going tomorrow . .stay calm – stay together in line – at the entrance and upstairs while getting the little piece of paper for BANKO (bank, window) and numbers … don’t let people crowd in – or cut into your line – then you will be left behind .. and do not take cameras with you – they might see it in the x-ray machine .. and do not take pictures inside the compound or building ..The cafeteria is down the steps – the A Block is up the stairs after your ID check – (where they enter your name into the computer from your ID card or passport … make sure you get the card back .. and then exit the entry building – and wait for your group on the stairs .. then into the A Blok door – and one floor up – where you get little pieces of paper – BANKO and SERIES ..BANKO 1 to 9 are located in the main room in front of the building .. BANKO 10-15 is in rear room (behind the elevators near the toilets) .. BANKO 16-18 are in the opposite corner (separate entry door) in the rear room and are really tight for space … each BANKO has its own series .. shown in larger numerals on your piece of paper .. . you just need to be there when your number comes up – but there is no indication – just word of mouth from others . .about which number is being looked at .. stay calm ..Cafeteria is downstairs Burger King/Migros outside – a block down .. Aksaray is about 5 blocks down .. and the Grand Bazaar is another 5 blocks or su .. the “light rail trolley” is across the main street in front of the police building (VATAN CADDESI) and up the hill about 5 blocks to the next main street which has the rails right down the middle of the street – this system takes you to Blue Mosque, Eminönü .. the ferry docks .. always travel towards your left side as you exit the police building .. and you come to the old city ..As for paper work –Every university has a different style of “student validation” .. and every university has difficulties with some banko people – for example, the “example” brought by two students from another university for us – was rejected by six of the banko officials – and had to be redone .. not enough information .. students did not even get processed with it .. but one official says this is what we should be doing …Every time – the system changes – every time there are new or old officials .. making some petty decision ..However, the division chief showed us what to do on the student validation paper .. and we did that – if his own people do not accept it – (as one tried to do) they can go speak to their chief (as I told him on the phone – he did – it was ok) ..There is no reason to get upset – keep patient – and have your paperwork in order – yesdo not show English duration and acceptance letters – they look and might decide you need them to be in Turkish .. just show the minimum formsand maximum patience .. and call if you have a problem .. and let Brandon know ..maybe we can solve it at the time ..Terry
For those of you that are not familiar with Entrecard, click here.
Ok, time to do a roundup of this month’s topdroppers. With the moving abroad and the travelling, it’s been tough to always drop back, so an extra thank you!
Topdropper: Wonderful Pic Collection (you get 500 ECs!)
Second place: iWalk,U2? (you get 300 ECs!)
Third place: Juliana’s Site (you get 200 ECs!)
I think most of you are aware of the 12.5% tax introduced by Entrecard for the credit transfers. I won’t deduct that, I’ll pay for it myself! Keep dropping and earn credits!
Other topdroppers:
Picturing of Life – My Imaginary Travels – Beyond Taiwan – From a Yellow House in England – Zen Tricks – Iconz World – WebFrap
Go check out my Entrecard page and leave a recommendation/review!
Since I spend a lot of time on public transport (either traveling or in the crazy traffic of Istanbul), I get to do quite a bit of reading. At the moment I’m reading two books. “A New Earth
Something I find very worrying is the growing phenomenom of antitheism. While using StumbleUpon, I noticed an immense number of sites that are very hateful towards religion. Understandably so, because they feel their way of life is being threatened by religion, but personally, I don’t feel that bashing, mocking, fighting or anything else that comes out of negativity can do any good. In “A New Earth
“In certain cases, you may need to protect yourself or someone else from being harmed by another, but beware of making it your mission to “eradicate evil,” as you are likely to turn into the very thing you are fighting against. Fighthing unconsciousness will draw you into unconsciousness yourself. Unconsciousness, dysfunctional egoic behavior, can never be defeated by attacking it. Even if you defeat your opponent, the unconsciousness will simply have moved into you, or the opponent reappears in a new disguise. Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.“
Very wise words. I really admire Eckhart Tolle’s works and can keep reading it over and over. If you really want to grasp the full meaning of his words above, go check out the book.
On my way to Bulgaria, I figured that Eckhart Tolle’s stuff might be a bit heavy for a 10+ hour journey and I’d need some novel to read. I found some novels in my apartment (left by previous inhabitants) and found an interesting one about life in Nepal around the time of the Nepalese independence movement in the 80s. I picked it up and took it with me… On the third page or so, I came across this marble of beauty:
“Could fulfillment ever be felt as deeply as loss? Romantically she decided that love must surely reside in the gap between desire and fulfillment, in the lack, not the contentment. Love was the ache, the anticipation, the retreat, everything around it but the emotion itself.”
Taken from Kiran Desai’s “The Inheritance of Loss
Have you read any of these books? Thoughts and comments very welcome! I find books are one of the best topics for meaningful and engaging conversations! 🙂
I’m off to see my girlfriend in Bulgaria. Which means I’ll be writing a bit about Bulgaria over the next week. If you want to know what it’s like there, just head over to my Picasa albums and have a look at the lower half of the page.
Speaking of Picasaweb… I took some pictures yesterday of a more or less typical day of me in Istanbul. Go check them out now.
Also some great news… I got a freelance writing opportunity passed down from the international office from my university. Turkish Daily News, a Turkish newspaper in English, sent them a message that they’re looking for international students because they could offer an interesting perspective on Istanbul. This is very exciting and I hope to get a nice chance to show my take on Istanbul on a bigger scale, as well as increase my journalistic experiences after having worked with the Bulgarian National Radio before.
My life’s developing at lightspeed! I can feel the rush! (and the stress, but enough about that already!)
I’ll write soon, from Bulgaria!
Edit – Oh, and I’ve been included in a blog carnival called Carnival of Cities, covering many interesting posts about many interesting cities around the world. Go check it out! And Foxnomad was so kind as to make a summary of it and include my post 🙂
