Attack of the forever growing Paris mouse maze.

  I left Turkey on my flight to Paris early early in the morning. My two Turkish amazing friends Onur and Bengi to drop me off and say bon voyage to me at the airport. It was great having us all bicker about which gate to check me into one last time. :) 

 I managed to easily leave the Turkish soil and enter Paris with a breeze. I must say though, Paris had the coolest airport facilities ever. It was like being in the Jetsons. You leave the plane and then obviously follow the signs ( this whole airport thing just became a regular routine for me at this point.. they're all the same) to the baggage claim and passport control. With Paris' airport system each terminal had its own sphere like building that was hollow in the center and worked in a clockwise manner (this was my experience, some may have had others depending where they arrived? ) Anyways, in the center of this building were these crazy trippy tubes with people in them... haha. They were like Jetson conveyor belt tubes for people? I have no idea how else to describe it but thats how you got from one side to the other and from one level to the next.. and you were outside but inside a tube.. It was really cool. 

 In Paris, London and Turkey they rely heavily on Metro. People.. this is legit metro not this joke bus system we rock in Halifax. In London they call the Metro underground system the Tube and in Paris it's just called the Metro. Now I found using the Metro in Paris extremely easy but more so difficult in London. 

 When I arrived in Paris I needed to take the Metro into Paris center and then change subs once or twice to enter my district of the city that my hostel was in. I did all this mind you with a 18 kilo pack on my back and a 8 kilo pack on my chest which was awesome (off balance say whaa) during this interesting attempt to enter Paris I found about four other packers. One from Turkey ( which rocked because I had just come from there and missed Turkish  a lot so that was nice), one snazzy fellow from Chili and another chick from the US that was departing from Brazil and Portugal after being there for six months! We navigated the Metro system like four foreign ninjas. 

(I'm just going to put in there that have seriously lost my english speaking abilities and am having a serious bitch of a time typing up this blog because of language confusion and spelling ugh.. but wait these were always a problem for me :P ) 

 I arrived at my hostel in perfect timing and passed the hell out asap. By the way I highly suggest the hostel I stayed in for a few nights, it's extremely clean doesn't have internet access though, is very close to the metro and has very comfy beds. Only downside is you have to be up out and outty for about eleven am and can return back about five o clock depending.

 My first day in Paris, ( I have some hilarious stories but they're definitely the kind not everyone needs to know and are much better heard in person) I'm roaming the streets definitely looking look a foolish tourist and see this golden monument statuesque thing in the distance and just walked towards it. I mean if its gold and shiny it must be famous right? Exactly. So I'm pretty chilled out walking along its not an intimidating city just an extremely overcrowded dirty one with identical buildings towering over you. I reached my destination this huge ass circus with a big tower with a gold angel on the top of it and was just like "where the hell am I" not "pretty tower" just what the hell.  So I see this girl with a map sitting on a bench she looked pretty legit so I walked over and made her become friends with me for the day.. basically. And told her where we should go. Funny thing is, she spoke little to no english and was from Spain wuddup amazing communication skills with both had via photo taking and sign pointing.  So Carmen and I went  to all the big touristy spots that day, went up in the little tower everyone raves about, saw Notre Dame thought of Bengi because she's like Elsmerelda(sp), saw everything you can imagine so I walked about 34-40 km that day. This 30km walking thing became a regular occurrence in Paris.  Taxi's cost way too much and don't respond to you basically, metro is easy and kick ass but not so much when its 35 degrees because its basically double when you're packed in like sardines. Walking is much better in Paris because it gives you a chance to check out all those small little holes in the walls and side streets so you can get away from the shitty touristy stuff and find the best cafe's and meet the most interesting characters along the way. If you walk alone, you generally have a small group by the end of the day which is pretty cool considering I only met two Canadians my entire trip. 

One more thing, for you art historians out there. In Paris you can literally see the Haussmannization its terrifying and you feel like the buildings all the look identical and they're going to cave in on you. This might be from the lack of tree's that aren't cut like squares and lack there of a mass of water anywhere. The canal doesn't count.. thats sewage. 

 

Last day of Turkey

For the last week I have been in Cesme which is a holiday 'summer home' getaway for most Turkish families. We have been beach bathing and beach clubbing straight through. I finally have a tan. I also haven't had a regular internet connection for the entire time aside from updating on a rare occasion through the use of my friends Iphone. We had been to some of the top beach clubs in Cesme which were absolutely fantastic. Sun all day with blue Sea and shots.. at noon... in total one day we ordered 50 shots.. of course we only did this day ONE time because I died the next day.. moving on..
Here's some strange things I've experienced and noted about Turkey. Basically as I'm sure I've said before, Istanbul is a very grand city, many clubs, yellow cabs and people dressed to impress 24/7 there are no pajama pants grocery shopping here folks. The streets are continuously buzzing with life. This is definitely a city that never sleeps. It's pretty funny though, if you need anything you can find it and at ANY time of day. If you need apples at 2 am or pm I guarantee  there is a spot you'll be able to pick some up. Even electronic stores or restaurants. There has been many a night where we end up getting dinner and breakfast because nightlife here is never ending.
Some odd occurrences would probably be Christmas music in every Starbucks I go into, fifteen minute unannounced breaks during theatre movies, Christmas lights outside some streets at night, the lack of child protection laws, lack of laws..., servers coax you into their restaurants like hunters on the street, people constantly trying to sell things to you whether you're sitting eating food or looking in a shop at clothing.
 I remember saying in a previous note that women seem to have a lot more freedom and appear less suppressed here in Turkey than my previous observations and experience in Israel. After staying in Turkey and having more time to take in the culture I have come to the disturbing realization that this is not the case. The very idea of independence for a woman in Turkey is a mockery. But it is not entirely the families or men's fault. Women commonly marry young and for money, to keep their family a float and to continue on their families expectations of high 'honor'. Some may disagree but too bad, this is my opinion. In Canada we are very lucky to be seen more so as equals than most places I've visited. Independence definitely carries an entirely different more restraining meaning than what we see and experience it as in Canada. There seem to be a lot of young dependent (too dependent for my liking) relationships, a lot of low self esteem which is then protected by expensive clothing and over dressing, thus the 'dress to impress' and 'high fashion expectations' delivered on the daily. I think it's quite interesting how in Turkey they kind of mock our society but the sad truth is aside all the amazing culture and fantastic esthetics and food in Turkey, when it gets down to human rights we definitely are on the right side of the bridge.
I have learned a lot of history through visiting historic palaces and sights, walked many streets and through these experiences can very easily support my theories.
Its kind of funny though the huge cultural differences I've noted. In Turkey and Israel they definitely have their differences and I've funny enough been like a politician defending Israeli's in Turkey and Turkish people in Israel. But their cultures are very close in the facts of honor and a love and loyalties to their land and honor for their families.

I'm just feeling very fortunate each day to be from Canada and feel sad that many  people don't realize and take for advantage how good we actually have it.


I leave for Paris tomorrow morning and will have an interesting time navigating the metro systems to get to my hostel with my huge ass pack filled with goodies from Turkey.

I'll be arriving home to Canada in five days now and have the HUGEST amount of excitement to see some familiar faces.

I love and miss and definitely ADORE and APPRECIATE all of you and can't wait to see you all.

I saw on Google it's the first day of summer... here's hoping you actually get to experience some summer weather.



I'll be able to update my blog regularly again once I'm in Paris. My hostel has wireless and that will be fantastic.
I apologize for not answering any e-mails right away, I just decided it'd be better to update my blog to answer and update all.

Turkish Adventures

So I have arrived in Turkey and have been enjoying every day.
It's been nothing but sun and warm weather along with great friends and amazing times.
So far I have visited all the famous mosques on both the Asian side and European side. I can tell you one thing life here is never boring and is continuously changing every day. I have caught up on the language and have managed to lose my english in the mean time. The sites here are absolutely fantastic.
I'm so lucky to have friends here to show me the real Turkish cities and places.
I've fallen in love with a place called Moda which is located on the Asian side of Turkey. The streets feel familiar to me, very similar to Halifax. Close small cafe's and restaurants with the servers yelling out to you from their patio's like "hunters" we call them, trying to coax you.
I have probably tried every type of traditional Turkish food you could imagine, have also learned how to cook some meals and discovered a delicious beer called Effes which is Turkeys most popular beer.
The shopping here is incredible, imagine a huge street and all there are is a bar store bar store bar store.

My friends are getting antsy as I make them wait as I update this blog.
There's more to tell but I will write more later


Much love and CONSTANTLY thinking of all of you.

The second image is of a little girl who was running around the Blue Mosque and sat down and smiled for me as I took her photo. (I've been very interested in the children here.. they have a lot of issues with child labour.. begging for money, watch Slumdog Millionaire and then you'll understand)

The first image is at a famous HUGE ass palace on the Eruo side, Bengi and I look like ants in one of the courtyards (the womans side)

The last image is a famous underground water storage that Turkey used to thrive off of, there are over 300 pillars and famous statues of Madusa located here. 

Turkey Bound

HEY EVERYONE
I'm so sorry I haven't posted in forever.
I haven't been able to have ANY access to internet even though.. Turkey is a very modern fast moving city (ps. I am totally losing my english)
I have been in Turkey now for about five days and haven't  taken any photos just because I've been going around learning the city and taking in the culture.
Turkey is differs from Israel obviously but they share very many similarities.
It is a very open place, with amazing fashion, food and music. I have wonderful friends here and have been indulging in all of these fantastic characteristics of the country. Right now there's a political election going on so the city is booming with conflict due to this election. (Not anywhere close to Israel of course)
The religion here is mostly Muslim but they are not as strong practicing as those in Israel. It is not at all as conservative, and I have definitely noticed a positive change in how women are treated here in comparison to Israel.
The streets are constantly busy, the city never sleeps.
Fantastic :)
I will update again soon with photographs.
Much love, I am safe and having way too good a time.