Iran so far away.

 Ironic graffiti in Alsancak

Three days ago, I had decided to go to Alsancak just to explore and take pictures and maybe buy some stuff too. As I walked around taking pictures and I noticed that the locals were all giving me the stink eye. Which in turn caused me to become extremely nervous about the camera hanging from my neck. So in response I figured I could sit at a table at a restaurant that had good lighting and just take pictures of the people passing by.

I had never gotten a table at restaurant in Turkey before, so I called Barbara and asked her. She told me to "just sit at a table and wait for a waiter to come over, and if they don't, which happens often in this country, just wave one down." So I found a restaurant and began to head over to a table when I was stopped. "Your camera is awesome!" says a voice to my right.
 I turn slowly and respond with "umm... thanks."
 "Where are you from?" asks the man and I say "America."
"America?, I fucking love America!"

Then he invited me to join him and his friend for drinks, which I did. They were drinking Tuborg and had a lot already in them. (Tuborg is a pretty good malt beer that tastes better in my opinion than Efes which has a 80% monopoly on the beer market here in Turkey.)
So I attempted to play catch up and managed to keep a really good conversation with these two men. The one guy's name is Armando and the other guy's name is Kershak (Or something like that I've had a really hard time remembering names here) They are both Iranians, they both speak pretty good english, and they both ADORE americans. We talked about how Armando had lived in New York City for a couple of years and how I was moving there soon. We talked about how Armando loved photography and that he was studying Architecture and Kershak was studying mechanical engineering at Ismir college of technology. Kershak unfortunately had had too many beers and was going back and forth to the bathroom, and I was getting closer and closer to not being able to function. I decided to leave because I still had to be sober enough to get back to the ferry and figure out where it goes. Before I leave Armando invites me to this party they are going to the next day in a hotel room. He tells me to not worry about money because I was going to be his guest and to bring my camera. So i said "yeah sure why not." We exchanged phone numbers and decided to meet the same place the next day. So I left and got home with the help of some friends I had met at Barb's cocktail party. Who were randomly at the same ferry station as I at the same time. The events of my next day are a story within itself.

Stealth Picture taken while walking around