Saturday, November 7, 2009

After the patates gecesi (potato night), Friday was finally the time for the traditional Fasıl night of the BÜHAK club.

The internet says:

"Fasıl" – This tradition dates back to the golden age of the Ottoman Empire, inspired by the elite businessmen who would meet to unwind with their wives, friends, and business partners, spending the night drinking rakı and listening to classical Turkish music.

I call it: a Turkish booze fest. 😄 It’s also possible that my dear fellow pilots slightly altered the original meaning on purpose. In any case, it was one hell of a party with all-you-can-drink rakı (or whatever else you wanted, but a real Turk drinks rakı!) and plenty of Turkish yalla music right in the center of Istanbul.

First, there was some very delicious food—though in my opinion, there could have been more of it—but I quickly realized what the real focus of the evening was. A tradition in the BÜHAK club is to chug an entire glass of rakı while everyone watches (see video) and then bask in the glory of your heroic act! Since I didn’t want to be a spoilsport, and I knew that as a representative of Germany that night, I shouldn’t trample on my host country’s traditions, I downed my glass faster than everyone else, making the crowd very happy.

What they didn’t know at that moment—and what made me personally very happy—was that I had discreetly filled my glass with water beforehand. 😄

(Photo: Kathrine and me, stunned by the unfolding events)

The evening continued with lots of dancing and lively conversations. I must admit that I was very glad to have received some basic belly dance training back in Germany. 😊 At some point, an actual belly dancer even jumped onto the table… and everything was perfect.

When the whole spectacle was finally over, and I was happily exhausted, sitting on the bus with Kathrine (my only non-Turkish support that night), I met my personal hero of the evening: Fulkan. You can see him in the video, obediently drinking his rakı. The only thing he could still say was Merry Christmas. 😄

Shortly before we arrived at the university, they, unfortunately, had to throw him out of the bus… because he threw up. On my back. 😄😄 Oh man… pretty tragic.

At 3:30 AM, I finally crawled into bed, knowing that my alarm would go off at 8 AM… Aaah…

I’m excited to see what the next adventure will bring! 😊