Dienstag, 16. Oktober 2012

Büyük Sehir: Istanbul, smoothies and ernergy bars

Istanbul Hardcore: Radical Noise

For many many years I have hoped for my friend Emres band Radical Noise to get back together again and play a show in Istanbul, so that I can travel there and see it.
Well... this year they have finally put their efforts together again, played a show in their hometown Istanbul and recorded songs which they wanted to share with us on a split cd/7". Crazy project and sometimes stressy, but with all of our hands working together and our friend Ricardo from the band For the Glory (Portugal) helping out with the 7" layout we have put this into reality.
Cd Layout + 7" layout
Arrival in Istanbul
After having landed in Istanbul we took a bus from the Sabhian Gökce Airport to Istanbul-Kadiköy. Having waited a few minutes on the busstation in front of the ferry harbour we got picked up by Emre and Engin (one fo the very few turkish straight edge kids). We had breakfast (I had a lentil soup with bread) although it was not too easy to describe veganism to the waiters of the restaurant. After this refreshing meal and putting one 7" sample together it was about time to leave for Ankara by bus. It was a comfy bus with Wifi and TV screens on every seat. On our way there we did a stop at some tourist place and there we witnessed the wide variety of turkish sweets of which many are vegan. I think I have bought sweets for around 6 €. They usually make these sweets out of pekmez (syrup) of figs and then add wafers, nuts, etc. Delicious!
The first sample 7" we put together

Much of this is vegan!!! Yeah!
We arrived at Ankara bus station at around 4pm and got picked up by Erce from Ankaras HC legend Pogo's not Fight and drove to the venue. All people there were very kind to us. We hung out outside and put our 7"es together (inlays, 7", stamps) to be ready for sale that night.
We made a soundcheck and went out for food. Found a nice place which served "Gözleme" and made it without butter for us. I had a mixed salad and Gözleme with potatoes and then Gözleme with aubergine. Tasted amazing!!!

Gözleme without butter! Tasty as hell!

Getting back to the club and being welcomed by a fan who bought loads of stuff. Nice!
Autographs and pics with us were asked by some people so it seemed as if a foreign band was something really special. The hospitatliy of the people in Ankara was overwhelming and unique. Performance 2012 is the name of the club and it was their first concert. The owners do have a band themselves. We have played with Pogo's not fight and Since Yesterday. PNF were an old band that quit 14 years ago and got back together recently. They played a typical mix of HC styles from the nineties: Old school, but also cross over influences. Nice!!! People really enjoyed their set and I can see why! It was much fun! People were drinking alot and had a pogoparty to the max going on.
Then Since Yesterday: I knew their name... I just didn't know why. Later on one of them told me that I forwarded some booker contacts to them some months ago. Very nice people... borrowed us some equipment. Their musicstyle was modern hardcore, sometimes with their bassplayer as 2nd vocalist. Pretty good actually. Missed out on buying their CD but one of my bandmates left a copy in our merchbag so that is mine now! :-)

GID! and Ahmet

GID! on stage in Ankara

Awesome roadie: Engin
 Then it was time for us. Not as many people still as during PNF's set, but still we had our fun, some stagedives, people seemed to enjoy, we even had to play an encore of 2 songs without Conny playing bass (she filled in for our bassplayer and only practised with us once). Firat really grew into his role as frontmen, since he is the only one of us to speak turkish he had to speak the most during our set and really motivated the audience.
After the show we sold some merch that we had to sign and took loads of pics.
Anakara, we will come back!

top right: poster for our show

Right after the show we had to hurry up a bit to catch the last bus back to Istanbul. Some sketchy dudes sold tickets to us much cheaper than tthe tickets to get to Ankara. When the awaited bus didn't come our roadie Emre went back to check if we got screwed over. Luckily this wasn't the case and the bus appeared a few minutes later. 
Me and Firat sleeping during long busdrive

This bus was a little less comfy, but we tried to sleep and most of us slept well. Unluckily the same motorway we took yesterday had been closed due to roadworks, so the bus had to take smaller roads which made the trip an adventure of 10 hours (instead of 4.5) and almost made me puke. We arrived a little outside of Istanbul at a busstation from where we got a shuttle bus free of charge directly a street near our hostel. We checked in and then walked around in Istanbul, drank fresh juices, had a nice meal (if you leave out buttered stuff, many meals are vegan indeed) and chilled. 

I had a pomegranate/orange juice


A little later Firat and me ran down to the Galata bridge and back up to our hostel and we got ready for the show.
Emre was a little aggrieved because the Ankara show was a small show and he feared that the Istanbul show will not have as many people as calculated due to several other shows in the same night right around the corner. At the beginning there weren't as many people as expected, while the streets seemed to be full of "alternative" people. But in Istanbul they first hang out at clubs where the bear is cheap. In the end 250 people still showed up. This wasn't enough for us to cover our flights, but it was still our first time in Turkey and we had almost 250 people enjoying what we do.
Anyways... Something's Wrong (also an old band that just got back together after more than 10 years) were really good. Sounded a lot like Biohazard. They had a melodic/rapping singer and one shouter. I really enjoyed. Then we were next.
We did a little linecheck again and then started with our first song GetItDone! People really got into it. We even made some throwing away their shirts to Black Flags "Rise Above" which some of them commented with "now this german guy makes us dance halfnaked, but he won't get my ass!" haha. Our friend Engin who was one of 3 turkish straight edge kids at the show did stagedives although he had a broken foot. Nice!

After our set was over people wanted to shake hands, told us that we were great, etc... It felt reall special!!! This was also the first show Radical Noise played with new songs being ready on our split Cd. Osman who does Lunas recordings was their, too. Very friendly guy. If interested get your copy through my band or from Lunas Records!

GetItDone! on stage in Istanbul
Then Radical Noise was on. They started with new songs ("zaman gecer" from our split Cd for instance)and many people already new that material. But when they played their old songs people went nuts. I have really loved to finally see them playing their songs "Angry son", "Bazen", Salla Merkezi", etc. Their songs are in turkish or in english. Kerems voice is great, also live!
Right before they ended their set I went under the shower and at the same time Emre wanted GID! to join them on stage for a picture. On my way to the shower I saw Felix and Conny sleeping in the backstage already. The weekend has already been very tough. haha Only Firat was on stage. 

Radical Noise live!

I got back from te shower and RN played an encore. What a great evening!!! All these smiling faces, so many nice people, no attitudes, no fights, just positivity. I love the Istanbul HC scene.
After the show we shortly got back to our hostel (Hostel Liberta: was ok and pretty cheap!) and then Firat, Engin and me went out to look for Engins special places. Many many people were on the streets still. Peyote was a nice club, but we left after Engin didn't find his expected friends.
At 4 am the clubs shut down, so we had french fries on the most famous street of Instabul: "Istiklal Street" and walked back to our hostel. We slept around 5.30 hours, since we had to leave our room. Luckily they let us store our luggage in their so we took the chance to finally visit the city, drink cay and just enjoyed life. Emre showed us around, we had another cay at Kybele Garden near the Hagia Sofia. Then we split since Firat and me wanted to see the cystern of the roman basilica. It was an antigue water basin in the underground. Amazing! Totally worth the 5€ entry fee.

Down in the Basilica Cistern
A big potatoe called Kumpir is vegan when served without butter, ask for it!
Vegan choices in a usual restaurant

My friend Emre from Radical Noise and me

GID! in front of the Hagia Sofia

Some roman columns near the archeological museum

Park near Topkapi Saray. We ran down... fun!

Down from Topkapi Saray towards the water. Atatürk is everywhere!

Chilling at Hotel Kybele

Firat and me went up to Topkapi Saray afterwards. Not enough time to visit the garden or the museum, but we enjoyed the sun while lying on the gras in the area of the antigue greek akropolis and jogging through the park towards the water and the Galata bridge and then back towards the hostel to meet the others. They didn't want to store the luggage any longer, so we had to find a cafe/restaurant near. Found a nice bar just a few meters from the hostel. Even on sunday evenings the streets were busy. Not busy as we might kow. Really busy comprabble only to London or Barcelona just without a proper public transportation system.
Anyways... it was time to say goodbye. Emre, Sinan, Esma and Engin brought us to the busstation.
We drove back to the Sabhian Gökcen Airport and felt depresed already thinking about the temperature shock from 23 degrees at night in Istanbul to 7 degrees in Cologne.
I will miss these nice people I don't see often enough. I will miss the kindness of the turkish people as well as eating at least 10 fresh figs every day.
Turkey, I will come back soon!!!



At the airport I found these bars stored in my trolley. Hm!
I can really recommend these for sporty people. Alles-vegetarisch.de has these. 
top: used during my Ironman: super!, 2nd: ok! 3rd: Used during longer runs, cool! bottom: chocolate and nuts: nice snack
Training fell shorter these days in Istanbul. Just one run with Firat, with a tough uphill section and that was it, almost.... apart from the shows we played.

This morning I did a nice green smoothie:
1 avocado, 1 kiwi, 1 banana, 1 mango, ground almonds, chia seeds, flax oil, mulberry syrup (dut pekmezi), mixed grain sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, peppermint, ginger

Training sept 24th-16th october

24th: Restday
25th: Restday
26th: 40 min running on treadmill incl. 3*4 min fast, 3 min easy, 3min fast, 3 min easy, 1 min fast, then a few pullups
27th: 1h cycling on fitnessbike easy mode
28th: 50 min swimming incl. endurance strength (swimming with paddles 50m, then 6 pushups, swimming 50 m without paddles/ 900m like that)
29th: Climbing at Neoliet, later 26km cycling 
30th: Climbing at Neoliet
1st: 32 min easy running incl. 3 sprints
2nd: 10 min Yoga in the morning, 6,5km running incl.  7*1min fast, later 18 min Yoga
3rd: 10km race in Herne through the woods in 39.22 min, warmed up with my kids who ran the race earlier on
4th: 2 h indoor cycling, 10 min pumping iron
5th: swimming with my triaclub incl. 10* 50min with paddles followed by 5 pushups, 50 m without paddles
6th: mixed exercises (ropeskipping, kettlebell, swissball)
7th: 3km cycling, 15km running with my clubmates, 3km cycling
8th: boxing training with my bro Firat
9th: 1h swimming in the morning (from 7-8)
10th: running to the Gasometer, running up the 116 m, then chilling for a few seconds and running back home
11th: 10 min of exercises in the morning, then 35 min running, later 2*17 min cycling
12th: Restday: show in Ankara
13th: ran a few minutes in Istanbul and played a show later on
14th: only jogged and walked a bit from Topkapi Saray towards our hostel in Istanbul
15th: 1.10h easy cycling on fitnessbike
16th: 1h swimming in the morning (7-8), later 30 min power and stability exercises, then 55min indoor cycling