I don’t feel as if I really put my heart or creative writing skills to work in my last written entry. I think because I was tired and because it felt like a chore. But now I want to share with you some tales of the interesting people I met while traveling in Barcelona.

1) Alfred: Alfred was a man who approached us while we were sitting near this pirate ship docked at the marina that we would often sit by at night and drink 1 Euro bottles of wine. He told us that he couldn’t find his brain, and when we asked him where he was from he said “Green White Green” and then he followed that by saying, those were his flag’s colours.

2) Tracey Guinsberg: Tracey was my most favourite person I met while we were traveling and I think she’s probably the coolest person I’ve met in my life. She is originally from Australia but she currently lives south of Barcelona, somewhere in Spain, I forget exactly where. She had long black dreads and she is a multi talented woman. She gave me her card and on it, it reads “Tracey Guinsberg - Director, Performer, Designer, Pyrotechnician, Fire Choreography, Street Art Attacks, Dj & Live Acts”. Pretty much the coolest chick ever. And she was really funny and had fantastic stories about being deported and having problems every time she goes to the airport because people size her up immediately to be a hooligan. She was one of the people we met the first night with The Flaming Lips. That brings me to my next point, I should probably explain how that occurrence happened. I recently emailed a former high school teacher about this encounter so I will copy and paste what I wrote to them here:

Flaming Lips Story: Last week I traveled to Barcelona with 2 friends I met who are also studying here in Istanbul also, and they happen to be from Milwaukee and Chicago (Melissa and Chris). Anyways, we went to Barcelona. One of the people who was a manager of the hostel we were staying at took us to this absinthe bar one evening.  

We went back on our own the next night because it was such a good time. The three of us walk in and there aren’t too many people because it’s a monday night, except one table with a bunch of people sitting at it. We didn’t think too much about where we wanted to sit but we sat close by the large group. The room had these really old rusty and dusty chandeliers and book shelves and cool old tiles on the floor to give you an idea of what this place looked like. 

We sat down and were hanging out, and we started talking to a few people from the group beside us. I looked at one of the people at the table and I recognized them immediately. He was tall, had like a crazy gray/white curly head of hair and was wearing a gray blazer. I said to my friends “you guys. That is the lead singer of the Flaming Lips”. My friends did not believe me. We continued talking to some of the other people at the table who mentioned being from Oklahoma, and that is when I knew for sure.

Eventually the guy I assumed was Wayne from the flaming lips turned to us and struck up a conversation. I asked him if his name was Wayne Coyne and he said “Yes we’re the flaming lips”.  That was cool enough on its own, but then we had a lengthy conversation with him and he invited us to go to a club with them. We went to this place called the Apollo and there was some awful dub-step band or whatever, but they did a Beastie Boys/MCA tribute and played Sabotage, so that was enjoyable.

The whole night, their tour manager was mackin’ on my friend Melissa, and he said that the next day he would email us and let us know where to find them again to hang out. We didn’t think much of it, but sure enough, the next day, Melissa had an email from him and he told us which restaurant and what time they’d be there at, and that they’d go back to the same absinthe place later in the evening.

We discussed it and decided not to impose by going to the restaurant and barge in on their dinner, so we  played it cool and went to the bar to meet them later on. They showed up, we had a great time, and they told us they had a spot for us saved at their table during dinner! So we felt pretty foolish for not going.

They invited us to their hotel after the bar, and so we hung out in their hotel room, (which was actually much smaller than I’d imagine a rock star’s hotel room to be). I sat on the bed next to Wayne and my friend Chris. Wayne’s wife Michelle had a notebook and asked us to draw things in it so we did a collaborative drawing. Other than the flaming lips, their roadies were there. The video projection guy, the confetti guy, an Australian acrobat, and a few other characters who were all really cool.

Fun fact which I learned: The song Yellow by Coldplay was written by Chris Martin who is a Flaming Lips fan, the song is about Wayne, inspired by the yellow raincoat he would often wear. Another fun fact, we asked Wayne if he could be any kind of monster, who would he be, and he said a Vampire. That was what I wrote to my former teacher.

We have some photos on Melissa’s camera of us hanging out with them at the bar, and then one photo of Wayne, Tracey and Wayne’s wife Michelle laying on their hotel bed. We probably won’t post that one because Michelle’s business is showing in the picture. It’s really interesting because I have these reocurring dreams where I meet celebrities and I have my camera on me, but everytime I take a picture it turns out really blurry or something goes wrong and I never get a good picture with them. Funnily enough, I told Melissa and Chris about those dreams the night before we met The Flaming Lips and I reminded them of it when we met them and we thought it was really spooky. What’s even more spooky, is that Melissa lost her camera case which had the cord to connect her camera to her computer to load the photos and so we can’t even upload the pictures.

So that was The Flaming Lips story. I hope you enjoyed it.

Now back to the characters:

3) Michelle - Michelle is a woman we met who is Wayne’s wife/partner. She was super cool. Melissa had this map we were given in our hostel the first day we arrived in Barcelona. It was sponsored by McDonald’s so on the map, all of the McDonald’s locations were pointed out. We passed this map around the table at the absinthe bar and The Flaming Lips and their roadies/friends/crew drew all over it. Michelle pointed out Parc Guell and said “go here and find somewhere to have sex” or something along those lines. One of the other people wrote “I’m lovin’ it” next to each McDonald’s location. Melissa has this map and she plans to frame it.

4) Gold - Gold is the name of one of the people who ran the hostel we stayed at. He was this big guy from Ghana who would often wear either a Tupac sweatshirt or all denim “a canadian tuxedo” is what I told him he was wearing. He was ridiculous. He didn’t like Chris at first but he soon became good friends with him. Something I should mention is that, Chris accidently booked the wrong hostel (same company but different location) so we had to meet up every day somewhere. Initially Chris wasn’t allowed to hang out at our hostel because he was not a guest, but Gold and him became friends and Chris was then welcome. Gold had a pretty strong accent but he spoke english well. He would always be playing music in the lobby of the hostel and he would sing along, “Party and Bullshit” or “Pahhhtee an booo shee” as he would sing. 

Those were just some of the people we met but there is a longer list. I also have a list of things we said on the trip that were funny. Like Chris was sharing a room in his hostel with 2 Chilean dudes and I called it The Chilean Man Cave. Or how it would be like late at night/early in the morning and we’d be on the beach, and approached by a man selling fedoras that said “Barcelona” on them and I said “Do we look like a ska band to you sir?”

Also, ‘Evet’ in Turkish, means ‘Yes’ in english- Melissa had the Avett Brothers on her iPod and we said it would be funny if there was a Turkish cover band called The Evet Brothers who all looked like the typical old turkish man with mustaches and tucked in button-up t-shirts.

Silly things like that which are probably only funny to us but I want to have them written down so I can remember them for my own sake. 

It’s been a long time since I’ve written in my blog and much has happened since. I traveled to Amsterdam and Paris. I was back in Istanbul for a few days and then I went to Barcelona with Chris and Melissa. Too much has happened for me to write in much detail but I will share some of my most favorite and memorable moments from the last month. Wow it’s been a month already. Time is flying by. 

Anyways. I have a few blog entries I wrote out on my phone and saved from my time in Paris/Amsterdam that I might post later but I think I’d rather just share some key points from that trip.

I flew to Amsterdam on my own and I stayed in a hostel by myself for 2 nights. Amsterdam is kind of what I imagined in a way. It’s the Vegas of Europe that’s for sure. People go there to do drugs and drink a bunch, and you see bachelor/bachelorette parties wandering around everywhere.

During the time I was in Amsterdam alone, I met with Lysan (a friend of mine I met last year in Montreal- she is from Missisauga). So Lysan was doing an Internship in the Czech Republic and was visiting Holland for a short time because she has family there. I met with her April 20th which was her birthday and she also had plans to meet another friend from the Toronto area.

We decided to meet in front of the Sex Museum because it was an easy landmark to find. I recognized Lysan’s other friend from facebook, Jesse who was with a girl named Amanda who he was traveling with. Lysan was the last to arrive.

We all spent the day together in Amsterdam wandering around and it was lots of fun. I actually hit it off amazingly well with Amanda and Jesse- They were both wonderful people and I considered them to be somewhat of kindred spirits. We just clicked so well from the get go, hanging out with them it was as if we’d known each other for years. Our senses of humour matched up perfectly and it just made for a great day. 

Lysan had to meet her parents at 5pm and so we saw her off, then we parted ways and I met with Jesse and Amanda later in the evening. We went to this gay club called Bump and it was fun. I was so happy to have met these people and I can’t really accurately describe how much fun we had together but it was a great time. I was so sad to part ways with them that night- it was a sad moment but we promised to keep in touch and meet up in the future.

I went to Paris the next day via train. The train ride was super comfy and relaxing. I stayed with this guy named Samir and he was a great host. He took me to a barbeque at his friends house and we ate amazing french cheese, had champagne, and meat and a bunch of delicious hors d’oeuvres. It was at this older gay couple’s place and they had a cute little house which was eclectically decorated. A collection of mini alcohol bottles filled up two old cabinets. There were photos all over the walls and my favorite was one of the couple when they were probably around my age, in speedos, one sitting on the other’s shoulders on the beach. 

The people at the barbeque were all very friendly but did not speak much english but I practiced my french with some of them. 

The election was on the TV in the background and Hollande was elected which everyone there was happy about.

That was my favorite moment of being in Paris- the barbeque. I wandered around the city and saw the sights on my own- When I first saw the Eifel Tower I choked up. It was surreal. I couldn’t believe I was looking at it in person. It was magnificent.

The last day I was in Paris, I went to this antique flea market and it was raining, but it was fun and really cool and I picked up a few small things.

I went back to Amsterdam to meet with Melissa. We had a good time there except that I injured my foot and it was no fun hobbling around the city for the rest of the time there. But we met lots of cool people. These 5 British Hooligans that were staying in our room who were handsome and funny. We hung out with them in the bar of our hostel. They were there with work and had these freaky masks of their bosses faces that they would wear. They also did mushrooms and were acting crazy but were very entertaining.

We met this one guy from New York who was fun and nice and said if we wanted to visit NYC we could stay with him.

We also met this older couple from San Diego on a canal cruise and sat with them, they were lots of fun too and the woman said I sounded Californian so I took it as a compliment.

The red light district in Amsterdam was very unusal. I went during the day and it was quite unpleasant. At night at least the creepiness is masked a little more. The drug/sex tourism is a huge thing in Amsterdam but other than that, the city itself is quite beautiful with the canals and bikes and flowers. 

After Amsterdam, I was in Istanbul for a few days and then I went with Chris and Melissa to Barcelona.

Barcelona was a great time. We were on the go all the time, we did something every day and really made the most of our time there. We drank sangria, ate tapas, ate paella, went to the beach, went to an absinthe bar, hung out with The Flaming Lips in their hotel room two nights in a row, that sort of thing. 

The Flaming Lips thing was certainly a highlight but the whole trip was a good time. We met so many characters and had so many inside jokes and encounters that we said there should be a movie made about our time there. I have a huge list on my phone that I made of funny things we said/saw/did or interesting people we met. It was just a very eventful time. 

Barcelona as a city is quite beautiful. Touristy of course, but it’s a clean city with wonderful weather and lots of food. Beautiful old architecture and palm trees.

We got outside the city twice. Once to see the Dali museum which was pretty cool and then to Mont Serrat which is this beautiful mountain range we attempted to hike up. I will add some photos. 

I am now back in Istanbul and I have about a month left. My mom comes to visit June 6th and I look forward to that, and then she heads home the 16th and I head back to Canada the 17th. I know it will go by fast.

On one hand I am homesick and looking forward to being at home and amongst my friends and family, but on the other, I know once I leave I will want to come back so it’s quite bittersweet. I will enjoy the rest of my time here because I know this experience is once in a lifetime and I need to make the most of it. 

The Princes’ Islands are where I’ve been spending a lot of time it seems. I went again on Friday with some friends. We went to the 3rd Island this time for the first time. It was bigger than the 2nd one, but we agreed, not as nice. It was a little more “touristy” in that there were more people, and there was a big park you had to pay to get in that had a fence along the water with barbed wire which we weren’t too happy to see. 

We walked through this park and exited it, and came to a forrest and we sat down close to the water. We had bottles of wine and Evelyn, Kazim and Chris had their sketchbooks and they drew while Melissa and I just chilled out. It was very relaxing and there weren’t many people where we decided to sit. 

A very friendly old Turkish man with a mustache came to us and we spoke our minimal Turkish to him. He was really nice and he left and came back with blankets for us to sit on. He also offered us cola and he sat near by and hung out. He also brought his bike and said if we wanted we could use it.

We hung out there for a few hours and then walked back to the ferry port to go back home. 

We made it back to Kadikoy and we went and ate. It was night time by now and after food, Chris, Melissa and I went to this Nargile place and played chess and backgammon. We had a bottle of wine on the floor where we were sitting and we knocked it over and then had to flee the scene, but Chris forgot his backpack so we had to go back and it was awkward. 

Yesterday was saturday and I dropped some of my film off and then walked around Kadikoy for a bit. Melissa came over and we knitted and watched netflix for a bit, and then we went to Dean/Amy/Aaron’s (Winnipeggers) house for a party. It was fun and as it started getting really crowded we heard that someone called the police so everyone went outside. There were several people sticking their heads out of the window of their apartments on the street looking at us. Everyone kind of broke up into smaller groups and did their own thing. 

I went to Autumn and Alex’ place which isn’t too far from my house and there were 8 of us there we just hung out. For whatever reason, they had 2 baby yellow ducklings and I got to play with them and they were just the cutest things ever, and it is easter weekend! How appropriate. We named them Wrath and Envy. 

Today we plan to go to this restaurant called Pando Kaymak which is famous for their kaymak which is basically very thick cream and you eat it with honey. So that should be good. 

Nisan means April in Turkish. The weather is consistently getting warmer and sunnier and the days are getting longer. It’s been fantastic. Some highlights from the last few weeks include knitting with Melissa, planning our trips to Amsterdam and Spain, making soup, getting my tan on, and so on. 

Some highlights from the last little while include staying up all night last weekend with Chris/Melissa at our Polish friend’s house, Kazi and Evelyn. We hung out and smoked nargile and drank, and a turkish guy from their apartment building came over wearing bull dog slippers and he was very drunk but entertaining. The bull dog slippers were hilarious.

We were walking back home from their apartment close to the school when we realized it was 5:45 in the morning and we could hear the call to prayer. A bus drove past us and Melissa flagged it down and I got on it and it took me back to Kadikoy. That was a good night.

The next day, Melissa and I met up in Kadikoy at the bull statue but she was atrociously late (not by choice) but because there was an intense protest going on and the busses stopped running. It was a beautiful day out and one of the posters from the protest had a picture of Obama standing next to someone in a Nazi helmet.. it was weird and we weren’t sure what the deal with it was but it was interesting anyway.

We went to the fish market and bought a bunch of veggies, and then went to this street where they sell knitting supplies. We bought wool and needles and then went back to my place and watched how-to-knit youtube videos and made stirfry. 

That evening we later went to Benni the German’s flat for a party. They live close to the bull and on the top floor of a 5 story apartment building. They have a great apartment, with a huge living room window that can see directly across into their neighbors flat who were also having a party. They were playing instruments and one girl had amazing dreads. They came over after we put a sign on the window that one of the German’s wrote which said “come over for a bear” yes, bear- I thought that was a delightful misspelling. 

They came over and hung out for a bit and it was fun.

That was last weekend, this past week was not bad, good weather but nothing much exciting happened. I went to Chris/Melissa’s one night during the week and we planned our trip to Barcelona which we leave for on May 5th. Then we watched Pulp Fiction and played a corresponding drinking game with rules that included “drink everytime a main character does a drug” and “drink every time someone gets killed”. It was a fun. 

Today is Thursday and I went to Burgazada, one of the Prince Islands by myself. I got there and rented a bike. It was great. The weather was nice, I saw lots of kitties, an older man with a british accent warned me not to get a sunburn and asked if I had “cream”. I walked my bike up the hills and took pictures. I could hear music, drumming and some kind of horn. I continued towards the music and it was people walking in a group, maybe 10, they looked like normal people and playing through the streets. A family perhaps, some of them were pulling suitcases on wheels. maybe it was a homecoming of sorts. I don’t know, but it was cool. 

I walked through the residential streets of Burgazada. Everyone lives in these beautiful unique little houses or apartments with cool intricate fences, and clotheslines with pretty gardens and cats and palm trees and gorgeous flowers. everything is old and colorful but in decent shape. 

I saw a fenced in basketball court in a area with trees and no one was around, and it appeared that 2 horses were in the court. I got closer and realized the horses were behind the bball court and they were just roaming around. I think I scarred them because they took off. One was pure white with a bushy mane and really pointy ears so it looked like a unicorn. The two horses galloped up a hill in between some bushes.

I tried to follow them but they disappeared by the time I climbed through the bushes they went though. I walked up this hill and there was an old woman gardening and she let me photograph her.

After that little adventure I found my way down the island to the ferry port. On my way down I saw a lady sitting in an alley with a bunch of cats and a bird cage with cute little budgies in it. I took some photos and then went on my way. 

I came back to Kadikoy and now I’m at home. Tomorrow I might go back to the islands with some friends, should weather permit. It is my most favorite place I have been on earth. To describe it is difficult, but it reminds me of places I’ve been in Cuba and Hawaii… off the beaten path areas though, very relaxed and quiet and all you can hear are sounds from nature.