The day started out well enough, difficult vocabulary quiz aside, with us discussing hipster fashion in conversation class. After classes ended, a select group of us, those willing to GO THE DISTANCE, went on a "gezi" to ASIA. We took a "vapur," or huge boat full of people, to Kadiköy, which is in ASIA. When we got there, we immediately went to a restaurant called "Çiya." This place is famous for its Ottoman cuisine. Ottoman cuisine is older than traditional Turkish food, like döner and lahmacun, and is a bit more exotic in terms of flavors. With this in mind, I had "Vişne Kebabı," or Sour Cherry Kebab, and for dessert, I had candied tomatoes. Both were like nothing I had ever tasted before. Amazing.
I left our group after lunch to head back to the dorm. I had made plans, important plans, to see "Public Enemies," or "Halk Düşmanları," with my friends here. I love Michael Mann, and my cousin is in it as an extra, so needless to say, I was excited. We caught the bus to Akmerkez, but only after a hilarious wait where I was the only guy in a group of nine girls, all lined up like a buffet at the bus stop. Every car driven by a man slowed down as it passed. So fucking creepy. The movie was awesome, despite the 10 minute smoking break in the middle, during which they showed trailers for OTHER MOVIES. WTF.
After the movie, though, the night got even better. We headed to Taksim in a cab that was unmarked, which I should have noticed beforehand. It was my bad. The guy took us for a ride. I questioned his route, and he said the neighborhood we normally would have passed through, Beşiktaş, was crowded. We paid as much as we would have from our dorm. Asshole. But when we got to Taksim, we called Kazakh Mariya and met up with her and a bunch of others from our group at a house party one block off Istiklal. The guys who owned the place new my old Turkish TA from Georgetown, Elçin, and were both really friendly. They also happened to be incredible musicians. Their place was full of Turkish and Indian drums. Everyone took turns playing them along with the music on the stereo. It was so fun! I started getting the hang of a few more complex rhythms on the darbuka, the drum I want to learn, by the end of the night. The hard part is figuring out how to strike it to make different sounds.
The guys, Börte and Erdan, both played fucking incredible darbuka pieces together, and then later each took a turn on their saz, which is a beautiful Turkish stringed instrument that, in my opinion, has no note that isn't beautiful. They played old songs like "Uzun ince bir yoldayım," and then mixed the saz and the darbuka. We danced, played tambourine, and chatted uptil 3:00am. It was incredible. They had a real kettle drum from India! They had four darbukas. One of the guys told me he had been playing for 20 years, and only later did I find out that 10 of those years were spent in the deserts of Egypt. AMAZING. Easily one of the best live shows I have ever witnessed.
On the way out, we left them our email addresses, because they have a band called Loca Luna, and are going to be playing at one of Spain's largest music festivals, and the volunteered to send us their demos. They told me that their usual monthly parties attract Turkish pop stars like Teoman, who is HUGE. These guys are totally legit. Their apartment is one block off the most crowded street in the city, and their average party size was 150 people. As I was leaving, I told them again how much I wanted to learn the basics of the darbuka, and they said they could set me up with a nice drum and have me over for some lessons and do some recording. I hope they email me, because I will totally take them up on that. Dream come true!!!
Tonight was so much fun. Great movie, great people, dancing, music, and drinks. Also, our cab driver on the way back was incredible. We got the daytime rate at night, and he was really talkative with me. He told me that next time I have to call the cheating cab drivers a "son of a whore." Then he said I didn't look American, but Sydney and Allison did. He was hilarious. He said Turkey's prime minster is Obama. I think he likes America...
Okay, enough of my drunken rambling. Goodnight!!!
best. update. ever.
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