After 3 and a half months here in Istanbul I FINALLY got to go to a soccer game. Kris, Serene and I headed down to Inonu Stadium where we got to see Beşiktaş take on Kasimpaşa. I have definitely never experience a sporting event like that in my life. Sure hockey fans get a little nuts but they have nothing on soccer fans. Everyone in the crowd just goes nuts. Everyone knows every chant/song and they start chanting even before the game starts. You’re not allowed to drink at the game, you can’t bring change, (I got a VERY thorough pat down from a female guard who put her hands in every single one of my pockets and eye fucked the shit out of me, it was awkward to say the least) or water, however, some guy managed to sneak a couple of flares in. At the end of the game, security guards surrounded the entire perimeter of the field to make sure people wouldn’t rush the field. We had an amazing time and I would LOVE to do it again.

Besiktas Home Stadium; Inonu Stadyumu

Action Shot

Final Score

Kris, Jen, and I went to our first ever European football game last night to support our local team Beşiktaş J.K.

To get in, you need to get patted down a couple times to make sure that you’re not smuggling in any booze, weapons, or oh yeah, change. So after I managed to lose about 15 lira because I didn’t know this little rule, Kris got her hidden water bottle taken away, and Jen got a very very thorough patdown. And I’m pissed, and I mean really pissed, that I lost so much damn money, but I at least understood the reasoning behind it.

But wait, about 20 minutes into the game what do I see? A FLARE. And oh wait, not only one flare, but two flares! So I can’t bring in my change which was supposed to be my dinner money for the evening, but homies off to the side can smuggle in flares? I hope they had to go through a whole lot of discomfort to get those damn things in, if you catch my drift.

Istanbul, Work and Home

We live in Beşiktaş, Istanbul, a quiet but central neighborhood near the Bosphorus strait; my job however is located in what feels like the other side of Turkey. It’s an area called Avcılar (pronounced Avjilar), and while it’s technically around the midpoint of the European side of Istanbul, it’s none the less a long trip. Every day it takes four buses, 6 Turkish Lira, and about two hours for me to make the round trip commute, which is why I’m really not very happy about showing up today and being told that the boss forgot to tell me he’s on holiday! Now I get to hop back on the bus and spend another hour playing Lemon-aid Tycoon on my cellphone. *sigh*  At this rate, you’d better watch out Jen, my lemon-aid empire is set to de-throne you as our resident lemon-aid tycoon!

Our neighborhood, Beşiktaş.