Istanbul Derby

When you go to bed at 6 am you tend to wake up later and when you drink a lot you tend to wake up feeling hungover and if you smoke sheesha you tend to wake up with a rough throat .... that was me yesterday ! I remember waking up and looking at my phone to see the time and then I had to check what time the game we were going to was at and the kickoff was 8 pm , that’s when I went back to bed 😝 when I did wake up for real I opened the blinds and looked across the road to see the Turkish Airlines which is a swift kick in the ass of a reminder that I have a flight to a Turkmenistan that I can’t get on because we never received permission to get our visa’s . During our drunken adventures Andi and myself came to the decision that we should go to Israel 🇮🇱 to visit our friend Mike “Shakes” Mazeika and to also try to visit our friend Ge’ Cardoso who was our host when we visited Brazil . So far we have not reached Ge’ but we did get in touch with Shakes and he has organized our ice times . So first thing is first .... I need a coffee and there is a Cafe Nero next to the Turkish Airlines office . 

We went around the corner and I grabbed a flat white which was nowhere even close to being a decent flat white ... not that I’m an expert but isn’t a flat white not supposed to have bubbles in it ? Needless to say my next coffee won’t be an overly priced flat white from Cafe Nero . Now it’s time to face the music and bite the bullet ... the night before this Kathleen had to cancel my flight to Ashgabat with Aeroplan who charged me $100 to get my aeroplan points back and my payment which now I must deal with my credit card provider to get my money back from , what an absolute pain ! Now I’m dealing with my return flight which was booked separately through Expedia but (as mentioned in my last blog ) I was told in the airport that I should be able to switch the flight to go wherever I chose . When speaking to this other Turkish Airlines agent I was told there would be a cancellation fee and a fee to process which totals $80 USD off the hop and that’s before being charged for my return trip to Israel which brought the total to cancel and book my next flight to over $550 USD !!! I am not so stupid and was looking at Expedia to book the exact same flight for $500 CDN which is much cheaper then the other option seeing how the Canadian dollar is weaker then the USD ... in fact that total in USD is $377 , guess what I booked ? So now we are leaving for Israel on Monday but today we are in Turkey and tonight is the big game with Galatasaray hosting local rivals Fenerbahce ! This match is one of the fiercest rivalries in all of sports and anyone that watches football (soccer) would know of this game . 

After coffee and booking flights I needed to take a shower and write my blog ... that’s why I posted the pic of my mask beside my iPad on the desk I am still currently writing at 🧐 makes me feel smart hahaha ! On our way back to our room we decided to pop into this Irish pub for one beer which ended up being three and then got washed up and began our trek to the Turk Telecom Stadium . We walked to Taksim Square to get on transit and shit was getting crazy even in the square where there were flares being lit with lots of singing and dancing and it was wild .... we got on the train with this group after we got scammed to get on by a local who offered us to put cash on his card to get on the train . The cost is around 5 Turkish liras and this guy asked for 10 each which in the big picture is literally nothing for us . We knew we were being had but didn’t even care lol ! When we got to the platform waiting for the train and the train arrived we were forced into the train by the crowd . No joke it felt as though I was lifted by a wave of humans and shoved into the train . It was fun but could be scary for some ... the train ride was absolutely mental in every sense as everyone was jumping up and down in unison while singing their hearts out . That atmosphere blew me away and at the same time made me wonder if the train would tip over lol . I will always remember this until the day I die . 

When we got to the stadium we had to get to a ticket booth to pick up our Passolig Cards by showing our passports . Tickets don’t come with seat numbers on them and it was a crazy guessing game that Andi had to go through to find the info via emails and then we finally found our seats ... time for a beer ! What do you mean you don’t serve beer ? Scheiss!!! I guess it’s a cola and a nice kofta sandwich YUM ! We take our seats and we began to absorb the energy of the stadium ... we were not too far from the away support which is all caged in with giant plexi glass to keep them from not throwing shit at other supporters and I forgot to mention that at one of the three security check points on the way to stadium I had my coins taken away from me because they don’t want fans throwing coins at each other ... I think I ditched around 5 Liras oh well 😔 safety first I guess . Speaking of safety , I probably should have taken ear plugs because every time Fenerbahce held the ball the deafening sound of whistles started and I’m not kidding when I say I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything so loud in all my life . The atmosphere was fantastic but too bad the game didn’t hold up to its potential as both sides scrapped it out for a whopping 0-0 draw . Lots of dirty play during the match and I’m shocked that the fans didn’t attack the Fenerbahce goalie when he decided to rifle a ball behind his net towards the home supporters . A few tried jumping the fence but probably held back since they weren’t charging in full force ? The whole game I waited for something to erupt and probably best that it didn’t but I’m the type of guy that likes a little violence , heck I’m a hockey player after all lol . 

Guess what we found outside the stadium on our way to the metro ??? Just look up at the picture 🤪 this time at the transit we bought our own card as we waited for the crowd to disperse and had no problems figuring this out without a mad crowd around us . When we arrived in Taksim Square we immediately went to a market grabbed some more beers and went to our room to ore drink and charge our phones to carry on with our adventure . First bar we went to when we left our room was the Irish Pub which was no longer a pub and now more like a dance club with security at the door and music way too loud to understand anything so we opted to leave without a beer and head to the same patio bar we were at the night before . 

When we got to the bar we grabbed beers and sheesha and noticed a woman sitting by herself eyeing Andi from across the patio so we invited her over . Andi thought she may have been a prostitute and I didn’t think she was and as we sat there she had other fellas join her and leave which made me question if Andi was right ? She eventually joined us at our table and she was not very talkative and we did not offer her a drink or anything of the sort ... actually I asked her if she smoked sheesha and she said no so that would probably constitute being offered something . Anyways she left and we never found out if she was a hooker and then we decided to leave also as we were tired and buzzed . When I went to pay the bill the bar wanted me to pay for her 2 waters , coffee and beer and they charged me for her smoking sheesha .... wtf ! I told the bar that we didn’t buy her any of this and they said well she sat with you and I said listen we don’t know her , we didn’t offer her anything and the sheesha never even went near her lungs . She did have a beer while sitting near us so I paid that but refused to pay the rest with a smile and they took all of the other stuff off my bill . As we were leaving she got up from her table she was sitting at alone and she left right behind us and went in the opposite direction which leaves me to believe that she was probably a prostitute of some sort that possibly works for the bar . It is pretty evident that she goes there sits and waits for suitors and then would more then likely leave to go perform her duty and when she joins tables the bar who probably employs her gets to charge for her purchases to some unlucky customers . Good thing that this one time I decided to look at the bill as everyone really doesn’t look at their bill all the time do they ? 

After the bar we walked to our hotel and ordered room service which was pasta arrabiata with a beer 🍻 and then we crashed out at around 5 am ... now it’s time for me to get ready to go out to have a story to write about tomorrow . Still loving Turkey 🇹🇷