Chapter 3

14/04/2025
20.10 at Guler restaurant for dinner near Istanbul university.

The waiter was too friendly and kept making stupid comments about wanted to take me out clubbing! I felt utterly uncomfortable, he kept fist bumping me at every turn around the floor. And when he brought the bill, I realised he charged me extra for the service fee. I was furious!

15/04/2025
Taksim square

I certainly won’t describe Turkish as polite. They stare at your eyes, making stupid jokes and that’s their way of being friendly and at the end you realise you have been ripped off!

My hotel is at Taksim square. What a stupid mistake. I don’t really understand why people recommend this place to me
Obviously they’ve got no idea about my taste.
This place is full of tourists, prostitutes and doggy businesses.
Coffee is more expensive than what we have in Australia. Between 100-160 Turkish lire.
The food is expensive and doesn’t have a great quality either.

Turkey is certainly not my cup of tea.

I arrived around five am yesterday morning on the 14th.

@ Pikap restaurant 20.33

And I finally had my first beer after more than a month.
This morning when I went out for breakfast, the same pattern happened as it happened at the restaurant last night.
I was ripped off. I hate touristy places and I hate stupid tourists.
Last night and this morning I realised I had become one of them.
They charged me extra and I shut up. So this morning, after that was charged about for bread ( they said bread wasn’t included in the breakfast) and the service fee which wasn’t mentioned in the menu, I decided to complain.
I told them one person was destroying the face of the whole nation, I thought that was a very fair and powerful comment, but they didn’t give a shit. I said I complained to the police and they said that ahead.

In Taksim square, there were so many police, I approached them and they said it wasn’t their business and referred me to the tourism police. The tourism place live said I had to take the matter to the municipal police, I walked for about half an hour and I found a police station, I gave them a speech that money wasn’t an issue and I just wanted to raise their awareness that changing their alphabets to Latin and trying to become part of the EU wouldn’t turn them to a civilised nation if they keep acting in such a primitive manner.
The poor policeman was using the translator on his own phone and I did have no clue what the translation was like , but obviously from the body language of others I realised I achieved nothing.

Anyway, without chasing the police station I didn’t know anything about this current pub which was quite nice except for the smoking. Everyone is smoking like a chimney.

When I was stepping out of the hotel that I am staying in, the receptionist asked me about my experience so far. If you have been reading my stuff, you should have some idea about my response to that poor receptionist.
I said I wasn’t very impressed. And guess what she said?
She was a Muslim girl in hijab and she was studying for her PhD in translation Turkish documents not sure in which language though since her English was quite poor.
She said yes, I can imagine, people in Istanbul are quite racist!!
I wasn’t sure what she meant by that. But I found it quite amusing.

I have been on my own since yesterday and I have noticed how important it is for me. Although Turkey is not the right destination for contemplations.

On my way I was thinking about the comment of the receptionist.
Racism!
Of course wherever I go, I won’t be one of them. Appearance and the language are the major two barriers. How am I going to find myself a home?

@16/04/2025 midday. On the plane towards Krakow from Istanbul

I realised why the receptionist says d about how racist turkish are. Last night at the pub, when I asked for my bill, I realised I was charged service fee again.
I shouted if anyone spoke English and two young guys said yes they didm I asked them if they pay a service fee and they said they only paid for whatever they eat or drink and no service fees. The bar owner quite panicked and I said I was not going to pay that service fee. He reluctantly took out that charge off my bill.
I felt triumphant.
And that made me to wrap up my thoughts about a tourist vs a traveller.

I realised what made me so uncomfortable about travelling has been the touristy culture. Tourists remind me of ignorant loud people with their camera or phone in hand, taking selfies in front of buildings.
I think this tourism culture started with the economical boom of Americans. They could travelled with their money around the world and they were tipping everyone and exploiting others cultures.

Dominika was saying in Italy they expect tips and they charge service fees and she was saying that she was quite happy that tip because it showed her appreciation about the service. She said waiters hardly earn any money and they relied on the tips.
And I dispute those arguments by saying: it was an American culture which makes those working in the service industry feel inferior. They had to smile at you and be nice with you to convince you of a handsome tip. In the US, tipping is compulsory. And that makes my stomach churn.
I said in Australia and even in Iran waiters earn their money and they don’t rely on tips.
In fact I find tipping as a statement as how rich someone is.

Anyway I came with the idea of a print on a t-shirt.

At the front saying :

I am NOT a Bold TOURIST, I won’t tip, I won’t take SELFIES with your buildings and I won’t exploit your culture!

And at the back says:

I am an Invisible TRAVELLER,
I am genuinely curious about who you are.
I have QUESTIONS
And
I apologise on behalf of all tourists for what they’ve done to your culture that makes you think it’s okay to rip me off!

I think I freaked out Dominika.

I asked my family and also the receptionist at the hotel to wake me up around 7.30.
I managed to wake up before my sister’s wake up call. And the receptionist forgot to wake me up. Typical!
The hotel I was staying at was rated as four star but to be honest, based on the standard I have experienced so far, I wouldn’t rate it more than two.

I decided to use the public transport again and it became quite a challenge with my luggage.

I dragged my suitcases to the metro station, many escalators, ( one of them out of order and I had to carry my stuff up the stairs- not sure why up now I am thinking about it 😂😂 )
Since I didn’t have any internet connection I was relying on the signage and stupidly there was not a single sign for the airport. So I had to ask and people hardly spoke any English. It was a rushed hour and everyone was running. From my trip from the airport I remembered I had to get to somewhere ending with “Teppe” I asked someone in the direction of that station and she told me I had to use the other line. So I hopped on the other train that just arrived. And when I got to that station 15 minutes later I realised she directed me to the wrong station. I checked the map and I found my way. I realised this was right in the first place. So I dragged my luggage and finally got to the airport around 90 min prior to my flight.

So if you travel to Istanbul, bear in mind you can’t navigate your path based on their signage. They don’t even call it “airport” on their signs. Quite confusing. Anyway. I managed and I am sure you will too.

My final comment about my experience in Istanbul: from my observation, Turks are very much into expensive cars and luxury brands and money, they are considered as the symbol of class and power, but when I was passing their cemetery, I didn’t see the size of their graves much larger than any other graves around the world.

My friend will be picking me up in Krakow.
I am quite excited.

We met in Krabi in November and it is quite exciting to reconnect.

To be continued..

18/04/2025
@ on the way from Tarnobrzeg ( it is pronounced as turn object) to Krakow