The old imperial capital city of Turkey was the last stop of the 9 months long round the world trip, which I started in 2014. It was the right transition place before reaching home. I'm writing this post just now because, with my mind and thoughts, I was already home back then. My trip and so my blog were basically finished: The End. But it isn't that easy: "Life is a journey" and I decided to continue writing about it. Reviewing part of my travel blog posts and creating a Facebook page called "Ami Tuo Fo", I share memories and experiences. One of the most faithful blog fans asked me several times about the Istanbul article. Finally, here it is.

It should be only about impressive or important memories because after all, I'm writing it two years later. And there are a few events which I still remember. As you will see later on in this article, many things in life may be repetitive, like a travel blog, for example: always telling where someone has been, what was good and what wasn't. I'm going to tell you a different story, splitting this travel blog post into categories, titled with an aphorism. I learned something from each category, which is a real Istanbul event. I hope you will as well.

"Reading is synonymous of traveling." MICHAEL FLORIS

It could sound boring or old-school, but the best way to prepare yourself before visiting a new place is definitely reading about it. Ask your friends for good books or do some research online, try to find out the best articles or background history about the place you are going to visit and get ready. I asked my girlfriend for some advice and through her, for example, I could find one of the best "hamami" named Kilic Ali Pasa Hamami. For a general idea about the city of Istanbul, I asked my librarian for a good book and she suggested me the autobiographical memoir "Istanbul: Memories and the City" written by Nobel Price Winner 2006 Orhan Pamuk. I red it while staying in the Shaolin Monastery in Dali, China. So when I arrived in Istanbul I had already a basic knowledge about history, culture and architecture of the city.

"We must always look at things from different angles. And the world will look different." ROBIN WILLIAMS

During the road trip along Western Australia, one early morning a few travel buddies and I walked to the monument square of the town we were. There we met a lot of locals and all together we waited in silence for sunrise: it was the centenary of Anzac Day. Observed on 25 April each year, Anzac Day originally honours the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. In Istanbul I saw the commemoration of the same event but completely telling another story: not a story of peacekeeping but a story of invasion and so on. By coincidence in the plane from Dehli to Istanbul I watched the movie "The Water Diviner" with Russel Crowe. The film begins in 1919 and centers around an Australian farmer. His three sons served with the ANZAC during the military campaign in Gallipoli. Apparently, this movie is not telling the full truth: various film critics described the movie as "a distortion of history that only serves to appease Turkey and its continued agenda of genocide (Armenian Genocide, Assyrian Genocide and Greek Genocide) denial."

"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." STEPHEN HAWKING

I was in Europe, I was finally back home, but I was in a Muslim country. Since ever Christianity and Islam have been pretty different. Because of this difference or mostly justified in the name of this difference, there were many wars in the past centuries, exactly here as well in Constantinople or Byzantium: the transcontinental city in Eurasia. To bring it to the point, people didn't want to change so there was only one solution for the leading conqueror: eliminate the opponent. The result is always the same: death, suffering and submission of the weakest. Personally, I try to adapt to other cultures and costumes. If everyone in this world would do the same, the world will be already much better. Looking back to history, unfortunately, human beings don't really like to adapt and there are always some sorts of conflicts. No matter where no matter which culture. It's a kind of repetition. And this leads me to the last aphorism of my favorite writer.

"Either we change or everything will repeat itself". TIZIANO TERZANI

Think about it.