Wednesday, September 16, 2009

I was in Asia!! Since my room was still rather spartanly furnished, and I had heard that there was an Ikea on the Asian side, I decided to take a trip over there. When I told my roommate about my plan, he just looked at me confused and said something like, "What the fuck do you want to do there??!" Well… in hindsight, I understand what he meant.

The journey took over two hours and involved multiple vehicle changes. When I was sitting on the ferry, I started feeling a bit excited… it had been five years since my beloved Asian continent last felt the soles of my shoes. However, when I arrived on the other side, I quickly realized that everything looked exactly the same as in the European part 😆 (Or maybe my eyes just weren’t sensitive enough yet to notice the differences).

After what felt like an eternity on the bus, I had to walk quite a bit (wandering around confused)… but then, there it was. A gigantic shopping mall with a MediaMarkt, Real, Ikea, and everything else that somehow seemed out of place. You could say I was back in Germany for an hour. It was a strange feeling, and I wandered through the furniture paradise in a bit of a daze.

Loaded up with my purchases, I jumped on some bus heading for the harbor and eventually found myself standing in front of the door I had left six hours earlier. Well, now I like my little home much better (see photos).

My conclusion:

A trip across the Bosphorus definitely has its charm! I think this will become my new hobby. 😊

And if I ever get homesick, I'll just go back to Asia… to Ikea.