A taksi ride and more adventures

2011 World Championships - Istanbul, Turkey - September 13, 2011

The women's freestyle team begins wrestling tomorrow. We have two wrestlers competing in what will be the first of three consecutive days of our women being on the mat. Clarissa Chun and Whitney Conder, 48 KG and 51 KG, respectively, are the first to go; they weighed-in today. Helen Maroulis, Kelsey Campbell and Elena Pirozkhova weigh-in tomorrow at 3:30 PM and compete on Thursday. My task for tomorrow is to make sure these three get down to weight and make it over to the venue in the afternoon. I have a good feeling about our women's team this year. They're ready to compete.

I had few more travel adventures today. In the morning, I went to the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) and the Grand Bazaar. The mosque was beautiful and much larger than I expected. It was facing the Hagia Sophia, which was equally as stunning. There is a storied history behind each landmark and both have Christian roots dating all the way back to the time of Constantine and Constantinople. There were a lot of tourists in the area because the Blue Mosque is Istanbul's most well-known attraction. The Grand Bazaar is also of great interest to those visiting the city. I wasn't all too impressed, though. It was a huge indoor maze of counterfeits and knock-offs. The vendors weren't extremely pleasant, either. Areas of it did smell fantastic because of the soaps and spices.

The part that became adventurous for me was when I decided to take a taxi (taksi) to the fitness center to meet Helen for a workout. I wanted to write my entire blog about this single event, but there were other important things from today. It lasted approximately 40 minutes. Let's just say, driving in reverse down a busy street, going the wrong way down a one way, "bumping" into pedestrians, making an unscheduled stop so the driver could settle an issue with a previous payment, going over 160 km/hr (~100 mph) and arriving 20 minutes late is about all I have space for tonight. It was crazy and very enjoyable. The driver, Ghengis, and I talked to each other the entire time despite not understanding each others' language. He was like my own tour guide and pointed out some of local's favorite places to be in Instanbul. It cost me $20, but I think I paid for the experience, not the transportation.