Housemates

With my 28th birthday and my move into my new place in Istanbul came the realisation that I have never lived alone. From childhood right through to this point I have always lived with someone; parents, grandparents, friends or girlfriends. Even the odd stranger! As everyone is probably aware, the best and worst experiences you can have usually transpire because of this arrangement.

As I said in my last post, I have recently settled in Istanbul and moved into my new house yesterday evening. Needless to say I have a housemate - my girlfriend, Anna. We met in Kyrgyzstan and have been together for almost a year. I'm pretty sure we'll get along just fine as we have practically been living together for almost the entirety of our relationship and we've yet to try and kill each other! However, I'm not one to take things for granted and it helps to remind myself of all the different people I have shared my space with.

To be rather mundane, I spent the vast majority of my childhood living at home with my family. Fortunately, it was rent-free and the ol' lady running the place didn't give me too much hassle - in fact, she even cooked and cleaned. There was a spell living with my grandparents after my parents got divorced (one of my first memories is of walking through the park between the two houses holding my grandmother's hand and a giant teddy bear in the other), but the bulk of my formative years were with my mum, brother and sister (plus a stepfather who at one point lived solely downstairs while we lived upstairs, but that's a different story).

My adventures with strangers started when I went to university. Like most students I lived in a halls of residence for the first year with random people who would become my friends. Each student had a room to themselves, but would share a bathroom and kitchen. My particular dorm area had 6 residents. My immediate next door neighbour turned out to be a bit of a tool, though he did provide something memorable. One night, my housemate had his girlfriend over and were engaging in the sort of thing red-blooded animals get up to. I was surprised, however, to hear their sex talk through the wall. "Call me the drill!" he demanded of her. ""Cos you're my road." Thinking I'd hear a fit of giggling next, I was taken aback to hear the young girl comply. "Drill me, drill me!" will forever be etched in my mind. Another housemate had a horse thong that would "neigh" whenever he was stimulated. Both he and his ex are still friends so I won't name them. :-)

Unfortunately, it hasn't all been sex, sex, sex with my housemates (actually, in most cases that's probably a good thing). For a brief period after I returned home after travelling, I had no choice but to houseshare as I had spent all my cash! One of my new "pals" was an Irish guy who had some serious social issues. It got to the point where everyone would make plans every night to not be around him. This wasn't always possible, so occasionally we would hang out at a pub or two or three. Being a big Glasgow Celtic fan, we went out one night to watch the final of the UEFA cup with some of his friends. Now, I love Guinness, but 3 or 4 is more than enough for me. For this guy, though, no English bastard was going to drink less and put enough pressure on to keep going until almost double figures! After the sixth I didn't really remember much other than hijacking a piano (I can't play!) and slipping away when my housemate and his friends started a mini-riot in one bar after Celtic lost the game. I remember the pro-IRA chants echoing in my ears as I left. The next day I woke up with a vicious hangover and no housemate. Two days later he turned up after being released from jail on remand. By the end of the week I had moved in with my friend, Ben.

So unless Anna decides she's into construction or discovers a penchant for violence, I think I will be able to enjoy my time here in Turkey without looking over my shoulder. Maybe. :-)

Nesting

I arrived in Istanbul just over a month ago on a flight from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The last time I was at Atatürk airport was in 2002 when I was about to fly home to England after my summer travels around Europe and Turkey. On that occasion I was violently ill after eating a dodgy köfte (meatball) on a rooftop cafe with an amazing view of the Blue Mosque at sunset. For 2 days I wandered the streets of Sultanahmet in a daze and mapping out all the possible toilet locations. At the airport with an American guy I had been working in Kuşadası with, I fretted as to how I was going to make it on the 5 hour flight to London. Moments before being called to board the flight, I had made an unsuccessful attempt at one of the bathrooms and fell short a good way. The look of disgust, horror and contempt on the poor cleaner's face as I sheepishly scurried away to catch my flight could not be shaken from my mind for some time.

This time I was feeling good having made sure not to eat anything remotely dodgy as my last supper in Central Asia and ready to reclaim some good memories of Istanbul. I was here to find a job and settle down for 10 months or so, soak up the city and save up enough cash to fund another trip next year. The only downside to this grand plan was that my girlfriend, Anna, and I were carrying two giant backpacks plus messenger bags filled with our worldly goods from our life in Kyrgyzstan. They were heavy. Very heavy. The thought of carting them around while we searched for a place to stay did not lighten our load. Fortunately, a friend in Kyrgyzstan put us in touch with a friend of hers in Istanbul who could help us out. This friend of a friend offered her couch and a place to store our belongings for as long as it took to find an apartment and jobs. Big thanks again, Maggie!

I found a job with English First - I had previously worked for this company in China, easily enough, though the job wouldn't start until the end of September. This meant another 2 months of summer vacation. The pain. Finding an apartment, however, proved a little more problematic. We didn't want to pay agencies fees (super expensive), but many of the websites were in Turkish. Craigslist proved to be our salvation. It had been our intention of finding something cheap to begin with, a room in someone's house maybe. The added bonus of instant contacts something to keep in mind. However, most of the rooms proved to be just as expensive at renting out an entire flat, so we gave up that idea. We did end up meeting some cool people on our search so it wasn't a wasted effort. Back on craigslist we searched for cheap flats and were surprised to find a four-floored town house. Thinking there must have been a mistake, we enquired with the owner who told us that there was no mistake. We raced around to the house to find a three bedroom haven with an amazing terrace view of the Golden Horn! We informed him then and there he could stop searching for tenants. We move in this week.

My new address:

Işık Çıkmazı Sokak

No: 26

Yahya Kahya Mahallesi

Kasımpaşa

Beyoğlu

İstanbul

34440

Turkey

Here are some pictures of the new house: