The city of sound – ISTANBUL
Have you ever been in Istanbul? Have you ever dreamed of
going there? What are the associations
about it? Before I went there I thought about James Bond movies (the scenes in
Istanbul) I thought about the market, about mosques, and all kind of spices and
sweet. And I received all of that and
more. The addition was SNOW!!!! Super
lucky, taking in account that last time they saw snow only in 2007. And then it
was only for a couple of hours. What I got was about 10-15cm of snow, -3 C and
for almost a week.
Istanbul, how is it? Well its the city of sound. Not used to
that. I live in country where you do not make any noises. The less the better.
But not quite so in Istanbul.
- · In Latvia you go to the seller and ask for products you need, in Istanbul seller comes to you and offer you the products you don’t need.
- · In Latvia you call for a taxi, in Istanbul taxi driver calls to you
- · In Latvia you go to church to listen to holly songs, in Istanbul holly songs are being sung all over the city outside from the mosque towers. With loudspeakers.
- · In Latvia you give a tip to the waiter. In Istanbul the waiter asks for a tip from you.
- · In Latvia taxi knows where to drive, In Istanbul taxi driver asks you money for calling someone to ask where he should drive.
- · In Latvia you have only 1 type of kebap, In Istanbul they are laughing about Latvian kebap.
- · In Latvia if you meet a person that doesn’t know Latvian you try to speak in English, Russian or German or show with hand gestures, in Istanbul they just repeat the same thing slower in Turkish for you to finally understand them.
- · In Latvia you receive a big cup of tea with 2 sugar cubes, in Istanbul you receive a small cup of tea with 4 sugar cubes.
- · In Latvia two men shake hands, in Istanbul two men do the kiss both cheeks or touch with both sides of head
- · In Latvia the price of products stay relatively the same all around city, in Istanbul the price rises and decreases dramatically over just a few block distance.
- · In Latvia men meet to drink beer, in Istanbul men meet to drink tea and play board games.
- · In Latvia you take of the shoes inside the house, in Istanbul you take off the shoes outside of the house.
- · In Latvia you count the floors of the house from 1 in Istanbul you start to count from 0.
- · In Latvia you can get the public transport card anywhere but the transport is not cheap, in Istanbul the transport is cheap but you cannot find the public transport card anywhere.
Would I go again? - No. Was it worth it? - Yes. Was it
better than Rome? – No. Was it amazing? –
Yes.
Should you go? – Absolutely
rocking Yes.
