Late in the afteroon,
I woke up when several Japanese travelers checked into the
room. Had a good chat with Taksa, who speaks fluent
English. We decided to go to Taksim square for the count
down later at tonight.
Istanbul, it is
such an exotic name to me. I don't even know where to
find it in the map just couple months ago. But here
I am, after all these travel, I am standing right in the heart
of the ancient city, am I not in dream?
It is New Year's
Eve. Fifty two minutes later, we will step into a new
year. Here in Taksim Square, thousands of people are
packed together waiting for the count down. Fire works
are everywhere. Someone started to toss the fire work
into the air and crowds, and soon everybody follows.
The finaly minute
finally arrives. The heat and excitement in the crowd
is uncontrollable. I still remeber how crazy it was
last year in Time Square, NY, but that was nothing compare
to this. Crowd starts to push each other, people throws
whatever firework they have into the sky, worse yet, someone
even throw rocks onto the glass window in the nearby reasturants...
Not long after
that, riot police came into the scene. I am sure they
have prepared for something like this. Fighting through
the crowd, we get away from the action and heading back to
our hotel. Wow! What an exciting night!
Once you take
step onto the street, you will soon experience the "friendship"
from the locals. I am sure some of them do want to make
friends with you, but majority of them just want to sell you
something, especially carpets. They are very presistance
to drag you into their shops. To get rid of them, I
told them I am a student and don't have any money, or sometimes
I told them I have already brought several carpets already.
Also, be very
careful about accepting drink and food from any locals.
I know this Japanese guy, he only drank a cup of tea from
this "friend" he met on the street, and he past out for two
days. By the time he woke up, he was sleeping on the
street and lost all his valuables, passport, etc. I
normally refuse the tea by telling them my stomach is sensitive
to tea.
|
)
)
)
)
