Center of the Universe

Centers of the Universe
The other thing in this picture besides me was formally the center of the Byzantine Empire that they used to measure all distances from. I figured it was suitable that I, the center of the current universe, should be in a picture with the former center of the universe.

I made it safely to Istanbul without many problems, my flight was supposed to be delayed for three hours but then was only delayed an hour and a half. The plane was delayed because of immense amounts of fog in Istanbul. When I got to the airport in Istanbul there were a lot of helpful people giving me directions and being helpful without looking for money in return. The fog in Istanbul was very heavy and I just went to my hostel and to bed.

In the morning I had an amazing breakfast of eggs, bread, tomatoes, cheese, fruit, yogurt and more. I headed out of my hostel into the city to walk around and was met with some spectacular views. Just outside my hostel were the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia, both are spectacular large historical buildings. Hagia Sofia was originally a church that was then turned into a Mosque but retained its pictures of Jesus, Mary and some angels. There was a section that showed pictures of famous people that have visited and there were pictures of both Presidents Clinton and Obama but neither Bush Presidents.

I wanted to get a haircut and I went to a local shop to get it done. There was a child in the corner who would bring towels and hang coats, child labor at its best. The guy who cut my hair didn’t speak English and so I showed him with my fingers how I wanted my hair to look. He cut my hair much shorter that I would have liked, I look like I am ready to join the military now. Once he had finished cutting my hair he took a lighter to both of my ears to presumably remove the hair there. This gave the entire barbershop a great burning hair smell.

After my haircut I went to a really nice park with wild dogs, cats and parrots. The parrots of course were the coolest, flying around overhead singing songs. I got a girl to take my picture by a small re-creation of a building with me attacking it like King Kong only to delete the picture moments later by accident. This is at least the 3rd time that I have deleted a really great picture and it makes me incredibly mad when I do that.

I spent the rest of the light hours of the day walking along the river watching the local fisherman. Istanbul is the only city in the world that is in two continents, Asia and Europe.

It is good that I have come to Istanbul near the end of my trip because it reminds me in some ways of the negative things about Morocco and India. Such as being hassled on the street because it’s obvious that I am a foreigner. However unlike in India and Morocco it is really clean in Istanbul. There are also wild dogs and cats here but they seem to be much healthier and friendlier than the wild animals from India and Morocco. In the park people were sitting on benches petting the wild animals and the animals were loving it.

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11_22_09 Istanbul small