It has been a month since my arrival in Turkey. I'm feeling great, and I got to know a bunch of people here as well. Before visiting Turkey, I heard a lot about Umut, one of Burcu's best friends here in Turkey. She told me he reminded her of me, and that we have a lot in common. Well, the first time we got to meet, we talked until 6:30 in the morning. A pretty good vibe, for sure. A few days later, when Burcu was out traveling for the Weekend, I asked if Umut wanted to go downtown and grab a few beers in the park or a bar. _Just one or two beers_ escalated quite quickly, and turned out into Gin Tonics and Negroni's. It was so much fun.
So, I wanted to check out the city a bit, and do some groceries, but I started to learn just the basics of the Turkish language, which didn't get me far, and a pretttttyyy easy target to get scammed (lol). So, I asked Umut if he wanted to come along, have some fun downtown, and if he would be down to help me going to find a barber, and do some of the groceries.
Lol. Of course, we ended up drinking beers (I just quit drinking for fucks sake, but I am making up for it with walking and enjoying myself), enjoying the view, and talking about random things. While Burcu is usually working from home, today she was working in the office, so it would be nice to see her after her shift was over. While Umut and I did our thing, and he guided me through the city, we just sat down at a bar "Sirena" and started chilling while waiting for Burcu.
She brought one of her co-workers with her, Ahmet, and we had a good time together.
So, one of the things I always end up regretting while traveling, is that I _rarely_ take photographs of the people that I meet during my travels. I always come home with so many great experiences and memories, but felt sad for not taking a snapshot of those with whom I got to make these memories. So, from this point on, I have a mission to photograph the people that I meet here during my stay here in Izmir. This way, I will take a snapshot of good times that will stick with me forever.
I thought it would be cool to transfer the photographs to my phone and send them to Umut straight away. Of course, the guy sends the picture to his mom right away, and he kinda reminded me to do the same thing. As I always get sucked away at the moment, I suck at texting the people around me just like that. Besides, what man does not flex at their mom?
Around 7PM, Burcu and Ahmet arrived, and we had some good conversations. Deep conversations. And those are the best conversations in my opinion, as you get to learn a lot about the people around you. We talked about the economy, crisis, corruption, and control, you can probably guess the rest of the topics...
In case you're curious; I am using a Sony A7RII, and just took my Canon F/1.4 50MM with me. Which is my favorite lens to shoot cities with (while there aren't much city shots in this post, it also makes up to be a great 'urban' portrait lens as well)
Making new friends is awesome. I am grateful for the people around me who open up to me. We already made some fun memories (and a few that are definitely going in the books, but that is a story for another time). So, I can finally say I got some energy to get out, and take some photographs outside of Burcu's apartment haha! Haven't seen much, but that is most probably going to change from now on :)
Cheers,
Ruben
