ELEVENEVELE 11:11

  You say I took the name in vain I don't even know the name But if I did, well, really, what's it to you? There's a blaze of light in every word It doesn't matter which you heard The holy or the broken Hallelujah   When I am in a foreign place, it's always incredibly important to first: observe the customs, and be aware of my surroundings at all times. I think it's important to carry an understanding that people all over the world are struggling to make ends meet, and that in a tourist centred economy, there will be some bad actors that try to game the system in their favour. Istanbul with it's intensely capitalist market economy is certainly no exception to this.  It became apparent (especially as I got into the heavy tourist trap areas) that every man in Turkey is a salesman, and they do not take a day off. They see the lack of melanin in my skin combined with the sightseer outfit (hat, shades, bag in front of body), and probably don't even see me as ...

 

Just last week we had a video chat while I was in Istanbul, and I couldn't have been more proud of the guy on the other end of the call. You were back in the gym, working at a new spot, and you sounded  happy . Happiest I had heard you in a while actually. We kinda kept it brief and said "I love you" as a goodbye and then hung up. The whole conversation was less than 10 minutes.  I was so proud of my friend, of my brother, of my partner in crime and mayhem at many different junctions of our lives.  Man, you sure knew how to piss me off sometimes though. You must've been my brother because we have had some drag out brawls over the years. It was always from a place of love and friendship (we were just both stubborn personalities), but we both knew exactly how to get the other going.    We also had some insanely fun times, some of the best memories in my life involve you and your crazy brand of fun that was absolutely infectious and brought everyone into your massi...

Baby I've been here before I've seen this room and I've walked this floor I used to live alone before I knew you I've seen your flag on the marble arch But love is not a victory march It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah    Alright after the first night's wrong hotel debacle and the second night spent getting stung by a mosquito and listening to drunken Iranian dudes stumble around a shitty hostel dorm, I was ready for something a bit  easier .  So while I was awake all night at the hostel from hell, I did some research on a good social hostel to spend my next few nights. Looking at reviews on hostel world and google always tends to be an exercise in futility, they often have friends fill them out or pressure the good clients to leave the good reviews, so my strategy is to look at the bad reviews and figure out why they didn't like it. Sometimes you can tell if the client just wanted a fancy hotel and doesn't quite understand the whole hoste...