Bad manicure & a historical stroll
Tuesday... The weather is more than hot.
Murat is at work all day Tuesday & Wednesday, so I doubt that we will see each other :-( He is doing extra work in the evenings - meaning working from 9am to 23 pm. Miss him & love him.
He called me at around 10:30, we had a nice chat on the phone, he said that he loves me... made me feel warm and happy!
The morning I spend doing house work, learning Turkish through a Pimsleur course and preparing to go to town sightseeing. I have been in Istanbul around 16 times over that past year, but still there are so many things I've never actually seen - or things that I've passed, postponing a visit to a later time.
I began the afternoon with a manicure, I desperately needed one... I found a place, the sign out front said 30 TRY, I thought it slightly price but thought to my self: Go ahead, enjoy it!
Well let me put it like this, I did everything, but enjoy it.
I managed to explain to the staff, that I only wanted manicure. No mask, No shave no - only Manicure. Now I did this on both English and Turkish - so I thought they got it. But I was wrong.
With one hand in water and the other in the hands of an Iranian (very friendly and nice) woman doing the manicure, one of the guys in the parlour all of the sudden splashed my face with cream, and some stickers of some sort. I said: "STOP, I don't want this" but he didn't listen. As I got a little angry, the woman cut in my finger - well, these things happens while getting manicures, I know - but then it's always on the house...
Anyways, I wanted out of this torture - and 15 minutes later the manicure was finished - and look at the photo... it's a very bad manicure! They washed my face free of what-ever-mask that had been slashed on my face.
110 TRY, the guy by the counter said. I was like WHAT!? Are you crazy. The sign outside says 30 TRY for a manicure, and I did not ask for the facial treatment.
All I sort of understood was: OK (and then he showed me 100 TRY) and said something with the word police in it.
Have seen the Turkish police in action (crushing demonstrations brutally), I paid 100 TRY and left, yelling!
Extremely angered I went for a stroll down Istiklal Avenue. Found a book shop that I like and have been in many times. There I was met with a friendly face. I said: "Merhaba" (Turkish for HELLO) - he replied politely, and then stopped:
- "Sorry sir, but were you not here yesterday?" he said with a friendly smile.
- "Yes, I come to your shop a lot", I replied.
- "I think to my self: I know you," he said half laughing. "I welcome you back".
Thanking him for his kind words, I went upstairs to where the books on philosophy and history are. I had calmed down after the Manicure incident, and found a couple of books, sat down in the air-conditioned room with books nicely ordered all over - and began to browse through my findings. One book had me laughing. The tittle was: "Turkish Democracy Today" - I didn't even wanted to to browse in it.
The dictator and prime minister Erdogan, has for the past year passed numerous laws, adding more power to the president - so it came as no surprise, when Erdogan last week announced his candidacy for president in the upcoming election.
Erdogan is so much a Franco/Mussolini/Perón wanna-be. He is glorifying himself, shutting down any sources of criticism. I mean, A month ago, half of Istanbul was in some sort of state of war, and there's nothing in the papers about it. Murat couldn't believe it, when I showed him photos of the police brutality that was happening a few hundred metres from where we were sitting drinking coffee.
Anyway, I bought two books. A novel by Ahmet Ümit and a book on Islam - I need to learn more about Murat's faith - well - more about Islam than the often propagandanized 'Muslims-are-bad' material and politics I find in Denmark, often spearheaded by organisations supported by politicians like Karen Jespersen and the anti-muslim (though they do not call themselves that - they just say Muslims are bad... ehm?) political Party Danish Peoples Party (Dansk Folkeparti).
After that, I went to see some stuff around town. The Sent Antuan catholic church and a 'historical wandering in Istanbul'. All mixed with text messages from Murat :-)
It was pretty nice. The heat was killing, and I drank a litre of water an hour hi hi
I met up with my flatmate, and we went home, where we sat on the balcony chatting. I told him about the manicure incident, he got angry, and said that we should go back there, and that we should threaten them with the police. I said: Let it go!
On the balcony we actually had a small (very small) conversation in Turkish - that was SO funny!
A friend from Denmark called, asking how things are and letting me know about news at home - and about my cute little dog.. Balou. It's actually funny, how much you can miss your pet, when you are away... Still - he is in good hands, that's always very nice to know.
