The Stills in Europe Day 5, Paris to Istanbul

We had a late night in Paris yesterday. After the show, Tim and Dave were invited to DJ at a club and 7am comes up pretty fast… So, we woke up at 3pm and we had to be at the airport at 4. Not a good way to start the day. After running around and learning that you have to call cabs for the airport at least 24hrs. in advance, we finally made it there, only to find out that the extra baggage policy for Air France is the worst ever. It’s a good thing we got there early, because we needed every minute to sort it out. Fortunately we made the flight, with all our gear, and we headed off to Istanbul.

 

When we landed at the airport we suddenly realized how far out of our comfort zone we actually were. None of us had ever really been somewhere where we didn’t speak the language, and communication was broken English at best. We were met by a greeting party, there were fans waiting at the airport, we thought our gear was lost (but thankfully wasn’t) and we had no clue what anyone was saying to us. It felt strangely amazing.

 

We got to our hotel, which overlooks the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, and right away we were told that the promoters of the show were waiting for us at a club downtown. We dropped our bags and headed off. We met at the venue for the show tomorrow, then we went to a dance bar called Indigo and a rock club called Roxy. It’s true, every city in the world has a Roxy…

 

It was unbelievable how out of our element we were. Every hand gesture, form of body language, how to order a beer, how to take a cab… all backwards. Fortunately the promoters had a good control of the language and helped us through and we started to feel at home fairly quickly. When in doubt, smile and point at something and it all works out. After the clubs, we went for authentic donairs (amazing!) and headed back to the hotel.

 

It made for another late night, but apparently that’s how things work around here, so we didn’t feel bad about going to bed at 7am…