sOUndS fROm IStAnbUl

Welcome to a former sovjet union country, Kyrgyzstan.

Departing from the place where I stayed in Istanbul, at the Asian side of the bosporus, we had to go to the Europian side of Istanbul. At first a taxi, than a boat and than a bus, to arrive at Ataturk airport, it took about one and half hour. And even then there didn’t came an end to the city, as far as i could see, it was all appartment blocks.

After checking the internet I found out that all the Kyrgyz airlines are actually on the blacklist of airlines in europe, but fortunately we had a turkish airline, for what it’s worth. Because just 20 seconds before taking off, a part of the ceiling came down, not very big, but it was a good promise for the rest of the trip. But after four hours and twenty minutes we (Chris, Charles, Rebekah and me) safely landed on the airport near Bishkek (capital city of Kyrgyzstan.) But then it took about one and a half hour to get a VISA, so when ev’ryone else had already left the airport, we came out of it. It was already 2 o’clock in the night, because of the time difference we had skipped about three to four hours, but we will regain those on the way back. We were picked up by two people, and it took us more than one hour to get to the place were we are staying. So when finally getting in bed in a drowsy state of mind, I experienced a kind of sensation like taking off again in the plane, so I turned around, and tried to continue sleeping, but after a few minutes it came back, but stopped a little bit faster. So when i was sitting at breakfast after sleeping, they told me that there had been an earthquake, so that explained my taking off-sensation. Because I am sleeping in the room that’s most far from the exit, it’s kind of scarry if there will come another taking off senstaion. So next afternoon we started practising with two local musicians, who would join us on the coming concerts here in Kyrgyzstan. A keyboard player, and a very good saxophone player (graduated at Moscow’s conservatory). The sound system is quiet bad, but hopefully there will come some better equipment later, or at least at the venues were we are playing. At the same moment they told us that there is a political revolution going on in the country, so not the easiest circumstances.
It feels a little bit like being on a different planet, people that speak and write a language i completely don’t understand, a country side that looks very grey and boring, roads that are more liking a bumping circuit. It’s like living in a tv movie, when there was only black & white television. (Although the food seems to create quiet a lot of noisy colourful bowels.)

posted by bASSIc aRTs @ 12:28 AM