“Have you heard some of the people are leaving the country due to this crisis… I heard the U.S. called back their citizens. My friend got on the last flight out of Istanbul this morning. She said the government was willing to pay for any American citizen willing to leave wherever they may be located abroad, if only they left today.”
Isn’t that pure madness? I recall smiling and telling myself that I would not actually consider going back to Germany… I mean, firstly, the epicenter of this pandemia is Italy, which is right next to Germany and cases are increasing in all neighbor countries. Makes sense to not go back there right?
I made up my mind. I will stay. Potentially I will even travel around Turkey during this imposed vacation. Although I do have some work that I need to finish on my laptop, I do prefer doing so sitting at the beach. So, why not just gather some people and fly over to Izmir… I know, flying sounds like I’m completely mad given the current situation. But back on the 15th of March, I honestly thought, this will just pass by very quickly and everything will get back to normal.
I guess, we’ll find out how normal it’ll get in the upcoming days.
Plan was set. I called up my friend Mehmet and some other people that were supposed to join us. Sitting in our usual Shisha Bar whose name I still do not recall and probably never will, since each time we meet there we track it down using our inner compass and what’s left of my orientation skills. It’s a nice place though, located at the corner of a tiny street on which’s corner a Vodafone store is located. Plus it’s in Besiktas. Our vacation at the beach is set. We booked the flight tickets which were outrageously cheap… I mean we paid 8 euros per person. Anyways, there was nothing utterly special about that evening. As usual, we would play some Rami-cards, also called 52-game. It’s a game I was taught in Tunisia and it does require some brain activity which is why I highly prefer it over “ok”, a Turkish traditional “when-sitting-in-a-nargile-bar-kind-of-game” that requires 0 brain, but a fair amount of luck. It’s entertaining still. No offense.
Topic of the night : Corona. Jesus Christ, it has become a crime to cough or sneeze in any public venue, I mean I did it myself. I coughed, I coughed out of boredom I guess, you know the kind of cough you add to a discussion or conversation when you run out of words… Well, I promise that was why I coughed. Everybody stared at me and I had the waiter run over to me showering me in Cologne. Cause well, sanitizers are sold out. Everywhere. I could not find any, neither at watsons nor gratis nor Carrefour or anywhere else, so our only way of sterilizing our hands and getting rid of the bacteria now, is Cologne. Vive Turkish Cologne.
Anyways, the situation is really starting to get out of hand, the people I live with in TURNA (the building, dormitory kind of thing I chose to stay at during my semesters abroad), are worrying. Some of them already left the country, going back to their hometown. As I said. No option for me. Plus we will most probably resume our lectures starting the 6th of april anyways and I read whoever chooses to leave Turkey, will be put into quarantine for 14 days in order to make sure they are virus-free. So do I really want to go through all this hustle? It’s not like borders will be closing forever, right? We’re not at war… Are we?
I went back home at around midnight thirty. There won’t be a lot of sleep tonight, but it does not matter, since I will be able to chill out all day starting tomorrow. Preferably at some hidden beach in Cesme. It’s definitely a better option compared to staying in Istanbul. (My very beloved metropolis, which has completed its transformation from beautiful cultural melting pot into worst virus-breeding pot; all in my head of course since according to Turkish official news, there are only 18 cases of corona in whole Turkey. It is, mashallah, the only green spot left. … I will leave this to personal interpretation. Whether or whether not you decide to believe in the news. I don’t. Generally and especially not over here.
Whenever I decide to travel, I have a cute feeling in my guts, it’s like tiny butterflies celebrating a party, flattering around in my stomach, creating a beautiful mix of excitement and anticipation. I might even say it’s similar to the feeling you get when falling in love. If you have not fallen in love yet. Sorry for you. You will never feel it then.
I’m just kidding, since I felt these tiny fellas flying around in my stomach whenever I went on a trip, waaaaaaaay before they ever showed up in the context of a guy-friend. So, peace and love, you may fall in love with activities as well.
Oddly enough, this time, there was a bitter taste to the usual sweet delightful feeling emerging from my guts. I could not manage to sleep. I was restless so I decided to stay awake until it was time for me to get to the havabus station around Taksim in order to start my trip to firstly, the airport, and from there on hopefully to the peaceful sight of the sea.
3:45 am: BREAKING News: Turkey closes bars, nightclubs, dancing bars and similar venues starting Monday 10 am – Interior Ministry.
Ok, well I do not see any sense in flying to Izmir now. People have already been pressuring me to come home to Germany all week and now this. At least I should be staying in Istanbul, where I have a base. Imagine they shut down everything and I will be stuck in Izmir… If they started shutting down these kind of venues, they will certainly follow up closing cafés, hotels, everything at the very last. No point. Izmir canceled.
I texted my fellow captives and told them I would not be going to the airport due to the news I had just learnt. Some refrained from going as well, others did not.
It remains a mystery on how all these precautions were implied by the Turkish government although the number of cases seemed to be so low. Not rising at all either. HAHA. Geeez, why all the shadiness.
I finally fell asleep at around 5:30 am.