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!
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!
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.
For 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 - yes
do not show English duration and acceptance letters - they look and might decide you need them to be in Turkish .. just show the minimum forms
and maximum patience .. and call if you have a problem .. and let Brandon know ..
maybe we can solve it at the time ..
Terry
Oh, how I wish this was just limited to the foreigner police. This type of bureaucracy is everywhere.
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!
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!
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” by Eckhart Tolle, this one I’m reading for the second time, and “The Inheritance of Loss” by Kiran Desai. I found two inspirational quotes in these books that I want to share.
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“, Eckhart Tolle expresses my feelings very clearly:
“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“. Haven’t quite formed my opinion about it, since the print in my version of the book is quite small and it wasn’t ideal to read in a bus on a Bulgarian bumpy road (and at night), so I had to put it away.
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
The last few days my blog has gone through a few changes, mostly because I haven’t been able to come up with good content, so I figured I’d invest my energy differently. Why am I not able to come up with good content? I’ve had a stomach or intestinal flu for about 3 or 4 weeks now and since I’m going to Bulgaria this weekend, I wanted to be better so I decided to actually go to the doctor. The campus doctor’s consult was free of charge, and after describing my stool in detail to the medical student of my age (very weird, not to mention awkward) who then translated it for the doctor, I was prescribed some medicine. I don’t know what’s in this medicine, but woah, my mind’s completely unfocused! I’m curious as to what the medicine actually is (besides very, very cheap compared to Holland!), but in this state I keep forgetting to Google/Wikipedia it once I get to a computer. Nice.
Anyway, for this reason I’ve been unable to come up with intelligible stories, hence the lack of updates. I’m doing well though, I feel I’m getting better and my classes have started and they’re interesting! Oh, and tomorrow I can finally apply for my residence permit!
Okay… so what have I changed/updated on my website? And why?
I got FeedSmith and transferred my RSS feeds to FeedBurner after reading an article at Rockfuse about messing up your RSS feeds . I did this so that I could track my feed subscribers better. I was quite surprised when I found out I had about 36 subscribers, instead of the 15 I expected. I proudly put up my feedreader count at the right and an option for people to subscribe by email. Thanks to you all for subscribing!
I put my Entrecard widget to the left sidebar because it loads before the rest of the page. It’s really important to have your widget in the part of the page that loads the fastest, because many droppers just want to drop as fast as possible and it earns you credits to advertise!
This freed up space for an “above the fold” banner at the top right side of my page! It’s still rather cheap, so go place your ad now!
I removed my MyBlogLog widget after reading an alarming post about the type of information they’re releasing (accessible to everyone!) about your blog. Not cool!
I added a contact form, which can be reached by navigating to the bottom of the page and finding the contact link.
I put the link for announcing my Entrecard topdroppers reward closer to the ‘drop’ button. In case people miss when they click, they’ll see the reward system (and hopefully keep dropping here). Also, they’re more likely to notice the rewarding if they’re just here for a fast drop.
I also put the PayPal donation button under the Email subscriber form, because I think people with their attention focused on that part of the page are also more likely to donate. Not that I really expect anyone to donate, but who knows. A button can’t hurt.
That’s about it. I also uploaded a new header image that you’ll see when you visit category pages.
More Istanbul (and Bulgaria!) adventures very soon! Right here.
A blog carnival is like an online magazine with a collection of the best (usually recent) blog posts on a particular topic. For examples you can just Google “blog carnival” and any given keyword of what you’re interested in, such as “travel” and you’ll find quite a few of these. It’s a great way to get your blog out there and it’s also nice to discover other bloggers in your niche, and network with them. Besides that, it builds traffic and pagerank, because of linkbacks (if that’s what you’re interested in).
I haven’t been able to find any expat blog carnivals, so I decided to set one up myself. Therefore, I’m calling for all expat bloggers to submit their materials for the first edition of the Expat Experience blog carnival!
How to participate? Simple. Just go to the Expat Experience submission page, select one of your most fascinating, well-read, recent posts and submit it for the next issue! Piece of cake.
When the next issue is posted, I’ll link every article back to the original blog posts (and main blog page), but I also expect people to show off their submission in the blog carnival and link back to the carnival. If you think the quality of the carnival is sub par, then don’t link it. It’s all up to you, but it would be nice to create a buzzing community.
Want to earn 300ECs (or a 2 week 125×125 banner on my site) and public recognition in the next issue of the blog carnival? Design us a cool banner that communicates the global expat experience with a width of 475 pixels! Whoever’s design is picked gets the prize!
So what are you waiting for! Submit your articles and leave your link below to show your participation!
This blog's about a 22 year old International Communication Management student from the Netherlands and his experiences living in Istanbul, Turkey for half a year. Enjoy the read; enjoy the journey!
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