The awesome adventures of Jack Chi: Istanbul day 3 - the French, Syrian Canadian, Turkish connection

One of the reasons I love traveling by myself is the people. You get to meet so many people just randomly.

Yesterday was just such a day. I met a French guy who is traveling around the world on his bike - also named Jack. A Syrian Canadian Ahmed. Finally two Turkish locals Tugce and Bekir.

I started a conversation with Jack just outside the blue mosque and he has his full biking gear. What a surprise it was to find that he is also from France. We switched between French and English as we ate lunch together and he told me about his travels and experiences. He is almost home after 5 years of circumventing the globe. His blog is here:

After my lunch with Jack I checked out the new mosque where I met Ahmed. It turned out he is also from Canada. He is originally Syrian and his family lives in Dubai so he is passing through Turkey on his vacation. Ahmed is a practicing Muslim and he taught me a lot about the faith, the practices and the difference in beliefs. It really added more depth and gave me a new understanding of the mosques.

So of course finally I invited Ahmed to come with me to the Asian side of Istanbul to meet my couchsurfer friends Tugce and Bekir. Tugce is a tour guide in Istanbul so it was great she took us to some coffee shops and showed us around. She was a Muslim not anymore and it was really interesting hearing about her experience. Bekir is her high school friend. He is trying to become an English teacher. It was cold so I gave him my hat that I bought from Japan. It was great since it made him really happy and I had already bought a new hat from Istanbul

After we parted ways Ahmed and I took an underground train (it goes under the Bosphorus) to go back to the European side. And we finished the night by chatting till 12am and eating at a local dinner.