Fusion!

I was up at 9:30, and managed to have an entire morning before Jonas got up at 1.

The most incredible news of the day: I might actually find Fusion beer, after 19 months of searching.

Several weeks ago, when I spent an evening arguing the finer points of social policies with Dinuka, my astrophysicist friend, in Warsaw, I also made a small request. He was heading on the transsiberian railroad, and would be in Mongolia, well, now. I asked him to look into shipping a beer I've only found there to the US, for which I would pay a commission.

I reminded him yesterday, and this morning I woke up with a message on Facebook from him. It went something like this:

"So I called up the company and they asked me to cine [come] down as it would be easier to go over in person.. so I took the short walk down . Got escorted by security to a secretary who then escorted me to the head of foreign relations who took me into a massive board room. Seemed a bit much for a case of beer.. The guy asked what you were gonna do with the beer.. I was like "drink it, presumably". So they assumed you were a businessman importing massive quantities.. After an awkward silence once I explained to them that it was  just for personal use the guy was still happy to send it to you"

Best news ever. Dinuka said they would charge about $1 per bottle, plus shipping. He gave me the contact info of one of the company executives, and I shot off an email... I'm too excited to get a reply. This is my favorite beer. The only beer I've ever still enjoyed when it was warm, flat, and a day old.

When Jonas finally got up we headed out. We walked about 200m to the Grand Bazaar, passing along the way the famed Burnt Column that our hostel is in the shadow of. The column was erected by Constantine in the year 330 to celebrate the new designation of Constantinople as the new capital of the Roman Empire. The statue of Constantine was toppled by hurricane in 1106, and the column was damaged in a neighborhood fire in 1779, but the column has remained for 18 centuries and counting...

The Grand Bazaar found us wandering and getting lost in a maze of silk and gold. The bulk of the market we saw was indoors, with high vaulted ceilings keeping the incessant snow away (oh, I didn't mention that it showed most of today? Snow and cold have followed us everywhere so far!).

We stopped for lunch at a random restaurant, one of hundreds in the area. This one had indoor seating, so it was ideal to get out of the cold. The food was delicious, but we haven't quite figured out the price to quantity index, so we way over-ordered, and now both of us feel uncomfortably full.

We got back to the hostel around 4 and moved out of the 8-person dorm room at Jonas' request. His back has been bothering him for the entire trip, but has gotten worse in recent days, and he needed a quiet place to sleep (and a smaller room that the heater would actually have an effect in). So instead of 
paying 5€/night each, we're now paying 10€ for a private room. Oh, and we had to move all our stuff from 306 to our distant new room, 307.

The move couldn't have come at a better (albeit unfortunate) time. Jonas stretched in the common room and we both heard a loud pop. He was in incredible pain. I walked him to the elevator and brought him to our room. I helped him lay down and went to a nearby pharmacy, where I got some over-the-counter painkillers.

I went downstairs while Jonas slept it off.

At 6, I woke Jonas up to see how he was doing. He wasn't worse, which was good. And he could get up. I left him to relax for another hour, when he met me downstairs. We went out for a walk around 7:30, down the hill from our hostel. 

About 250m later we rounded the corner, and were met with a perfect view of the Blue Mosque. At night, it is striking. Six minarets rise into the sky, lit from below, and highlighted along with the domes by the darkened sky. Amazing.

I don't know who it was who saw the Hagia Sophia and said to themselves, "you know what this gigantic mosque could use next to it? Another gigantic mosque." but someone did, and the Blue Mosque runs right up against Hagia Sophia, separated only by a small open area. So we got a beautiful view of that as well. Both mosques were closed for business, but we're so close, and we can go inside tomorrow.

We made our way back to the hostel, stopping at a cafe for some takeaway dinner. We made it back about 9, and the night was over. I downloaded a movie to watch, but iTunes took forever to download, so we'll watch it tomorrow. The Last Circus, it's called - a Spanish thriller.

Today and the next few days are going to be almost all things done at the behest of Jonas. I have 5 months here. He has 5 days. Nonetheless, I will faithfully keep this journal until my study abroad program starts, and then sporadically from there until I return to the US.