Battlefield Tourist

So, a Saturday night in Istanbul... what to do. Well, I haven't heard from Elif, so I decided to head out to Taksim alone for a good old fashion pub crawl. I'll definately have to update this because although I took notes, I can't find them and by the time I got home, my memory had deteriorated into mush.

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Istanbul Pub Crawl

Taking a taxi toward Taksim, I saw a place called "Trouble". My type of place. An "Alternatıve Rock Bar". Very cool inside. What you would expect: Low light, loud musıc, a lot of couches, and beer. It was still kind of early, so there wasn't a lot of people. Up on the second floor where I had my beer was a couple that kissed forever. I have never seen two people kiss so long hat weren't ın a contest. Got tired of that and moved on.
Up the street a bit I went to a place called "Arsen Lüpen", after some French poet or something. It too was empty until I went out on the terrace, which was crammed with people. The open air was nice, musıc alternatıve, beer of choice was naturally Efes. Since my rule was one beer per bar with a goal of ten bars, I really didn't stay long. Besides, if you stay too long, you start checking out the nice looking Turk women, whıch of course, is a no no (being married and all).
Then it was off to a club called "Smash". Typical dance club type with VERY loud music and people dancing. The standout thing here was an old man, 70ish, putting out the moves not unlike Saturday Night Fever. This obviously wasn't normal because the young Turks thought it was funny too.
This is where everything starts getting fuzzy. The next place was another dance club type called "Cinema Bar and Grıll". Nothing special here except the guy at the bathroom who pours cologne in your hands and wants a tip. Sorry. I work for money, and so should he.
Next I was off to a place called "Legends". This place was packed and I got the feeling everything was set for couples and groups because the bouncer kept hearding me to toward the bar, when all I wanted was to watch a young blonde Turk doing a belly dance. I know what I'm getting Heidi one day: Belly dancing lessons!! That is some nice action!! All the fun was over a guy and girl doing Turkish karoke, which is popular here as well as the states.
Bars 6 - 10 will go down as anonymous because: A. I can't remember the name or B. I forgot to write it down. Anyway it boiled down to two more karoke clubs, a dance club (where I broke my one drink rule because I found two Turk girls, one an English teacher, and I was able to finally talk to someone for the first time that night), a club that had a live band playing shortened versions of American classics like La Bamba and Elvis, and finally, a GAY bar. So now you see the trouble with not kowing the language.
By now you can imagine, I'm a bit toasty when I walk in here. The first thing I notice are the big, burly bartenders dressed like women. A closer look around the bar revealed only a few "women" lıke this, the rest men. 2+2= GAY BAR. Seconds after some drunk tries to talk to me, then hugs me saying something like, I love you (perhaps my imagination?), the lights go out and it's completely dark. I make my way to the front door somehow without being gropped and jumped into the first taxi I see. "Merter, Green Park Ötel, please". What a night.
So how did I pick the bars I visited? In Taksim, as I mentioned the other day, the place is crammed with tens of thousands of people. I simply would make my way through the crowd and go toward loud music. Pretty simple, actually. Twice I was turned away because the club was full. That shows you how much is going on in Taksim. I absolutely cannot wait to bring Heidi here!
Unfortunately, it took until 2:00pm today to recover, followed by a promise to myself never to drink in excess again. We'll see.